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New-Gen Devices Offer Sleep Apnea Patients Alternative CPAP Routes

 
• By Jenny Blair

With half or more of all diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea patients who need continuous positive airway pressure machines unwilling or unable to use these devices, there’s a large unmet need for an alternative treatment. Startups are rising to the challenge with neuromodulation platforms, a mouthguard-like suction device, a nasal device with microblowers, and a vibrating device that nudges patients to turn on their sides.

Sleep Disorder
• Source: shutterstock.com

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common, devastating and costly condition. It affects an estimated 100 million people worldwide, of whom 18 million are in the US alone, and its societal costs are huge. A 2010 joint Harvard Medical School-McKinsey & Company report estimated that the annual cost of moderate to severe OSA in the US is between $65bn- $165bn, including diagnosis and treatment, hidden health-care costs (notably cardiovascular disease, with which moderate to severe OSA is strongly associated), traffic and workplace accidents, and absenteeism.

For decades, the go-to treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea has been for the patient to wear a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device during sleep. (Market dominators for CPAP are ResMed Inc. and Philips Respironics.) These provide pressurized air on both inhalation and exhalation that keeps the airway open; it is highly effective, thus reducing the number of apneic episodes. But compliance is low

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