No abstract

Cutanplast nasal pack results in significantly less pain and less bleeding compared to Merocel pack.

4. Laryngoscope, 126:763-767, 2016.

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No abstract

Snoring is a sign of increased upper airway resistance and is the most common symptom suggestive of obstructive sleep apnea. Acoustic analysis of snoring sounds is a non-invasive diagnostic technique and may provide a screening test that can determine the location of obstruction sites. We recorded snoring sounds according to obstruction level, measured by DISE, using a smartphone and focused on the analysis of formant frequencies. The study group comprised 32 male patients (mean age 42.9 years). The spectrogram pattern, intensity (dB), fundamental frequencies (F ), and formant frequencies (F, F , and F) of the snoring sounds were analyzed for each subject. On spectrographic analysis, retropalatal level obstruction tended to produce sharp and regular peaks, while retrolingual level obstruction tended to show peaks with a gradual onset and decay. On formant frequency analysis, F (retropalatal level vs. retrolingual level: 488.1 ± 125.8 vs. 634.7 ± 196.6 Hz) and F (retropalatal level vs. retrolingual level: 1267.3 ± 306.6 vs. 1723.7 ± 550.0 Hz) of retrolingual level obstructions showed significantly higher values than retropalatal level obstruction (p < 0.05). This suggests that the upper airway is more severely obstructed with retrolingual level obstruction and that there is a greater change in tongue position. Acoustic analysis of snoring is a non-invasive diagnostic technique that can be easily applied at a relatively low cost. The analysis of formant frequencies will be a useful screening test for the prediction of occlusion sites. Moreover, smartphone can be effective for recording snoring sounds.

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We studied upper airway structural changes induced by continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patients using drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE). This prospective study was conducted at an academic secondary referral center. In total, 28 male OSAS patients (mean age 41.1 years) with only retropalatal level obstructions were enrolled. Measurements of the obstruction site were obtained in two steps: first a measurement was taken of the obstruction site in accordance with sleep apnea, then, a measurement was taken of the obstruction site in accordance with DISE-assisted CPAP titration, including quantitative changes in the occlusion site before and after CPAP in pixel format using an area calculation program. There was a tendency for persistent closing in cases of antero-posterior (AP) obstruction versus cases of lateral (Lat) obstruction in the CPAP titration. Lat obstructions showed a tendency to be wider than AP obstructions in the quantitative analysis. These results show that the pattern and degree of airway expansion after CPAP differ in accordance with the obstruction site.