Observer Variation in Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy: Experienced Versus Nonexperienced Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgeons

Abstract

This study indicates that both interobserver and intraobserver agreement was higher in experienced versus nonexperienced ENT surgeons. Agreement ranged from poor to excellent in both groups. The current results suggest that experience in performing DISE is necessary to obtain reliable observations.

Drug‐induced sleep endoscopy in sleep‐disordered breathing: Report on 1,249 cases

“…However, interesting steps toward quantification of DISE findings were recently described in literature . A key factor is the training of general ENT surgeons for this procedure; higher intraobserver and interobserver agreement has been found among ENT surgeons experienced with performing DISE . In the present study, DISE findings were assessed by three different ENT surgeons, all experienced with DISE and trained at the same institute.…”

Drug-induced sleep endoscopy in children with Prader-Willi syndrome

“…First, DISE is a subjective assessment, and the results may be biased. However, there are several studies reporting the acceptable consistency of DISE [26][27][28]. Although, to our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the patterns of airway collapse from DISE with AHI in children with PWS, the statistical analysis of this study is limited in terms of power owing to the small number of subjects.…”

Are the obstruction sites visualized on drug-induced sleep endoscopy reliable?

“…Vroegop showed examiner experience to be a determining factor of reliability [21]. In the present study, both examiners were experienced ENT physicians.…”

“…In the present study, both examiners were experienced ENT physicians. If inter-examiner agreement can be taken as a proxy for "ease" of determining the anatomic areas or tissue structures implicated in obstruction, then the base of the tongue, which was identified excessively, seems to be the "easiest" region [21]. The oropharyngeal walls are the most difficult tissue structures to assess on DISE [3], but were, theoretically, treated by surgery and should not figure as undetermined sites in the failure group.…”