Insomnia aspect in the follow-up of sleep apnea patients treated with hypoglossal nerve stimulation with respiratory sensing

Within the recent years, hypoglossal nerve stimulation with respiratory sensing (HNS) is an established treatment option for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in PAP failure. In long-term follow-up, patient with coexisting insomnia appear to have a more difficult therapy adjustment and report more likely about usage problems. The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) is a widely used questionnaire for clinical usage and serves here in this study for the OSA therapy.

We tried to assess about 150 patients with HNS who fulfilled the 6-month follow-up. Beside demographic and OSA disease related data, depression was documented. Additionally, implant usage and overall patient satisfaction was recorded.

From meanwhile 95 assessed patients, 73.7% showed no or mild impairment with regard to ISI, whereas 21.3 resp. 6.4% had moderate resp. severe scores. In moderate and severe ISI scoring, patient were younger and showed higher AHI and ESS but had the same AHI reduction. Depression was more frequent. Here, therapy usage was reduced and patient satisfaction were lower (60 versus 95.7%).

These results underline the need to assess insomnia aspects because of the disease´s frequency, especially among second line-therapy patients. Especially in the long-term follow-up of HNS patients, such circumstances need to be addressed in order to achieve high patient´s satisfaction.

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Inspire Medical Inc.

Conflict of interest

The first author points out the following conflict of interest: Armin Steffen erhält Forschungsförderung, Vortragshonorare und Reisekostenunterstützung von Fa. Inspire Medical. Er ist Berater für Merz Pharmaceuticals und Respicardia.

Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021