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If you have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, but can’t use or tolerate continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, the care teams at LVPG Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine and LVPG Ear, Nose and Throat have a maskless option to consider, called Inspire. The Inspire system received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2014.
How Inspire therapy treats sleep apnea
Inspire is an implantable device that works inside your body with your natural breathing process to treat sleep apnea. Using a small, hand-held remote control, you turn on Inspire before bed to deliver mild stimulation to key airway muscles. This allows your airway to open during sleep. When you wake up in the morning, you use the remote control to turn it off. Additionally, you can pause therapy during the night if needed and increase or decrease the amount of stimulation your airway receives.
In a short outpatient procedure, our experts will gently place the Inspire system, which consists of a small battery and two small wires, under the skin of your neck and chest through two small incisions. Most patients who have this minimally invasive procedure return home the same day and go back to non-strenuous activities within a few days.
In studies to measure the effectiveness of Inspire, researchers found:
- 90% of bed partners reported soft snoring or no snoring at all
- 79% reduction in sleep apnea events1
- 94% of people are satisfied with Inspire2
1. Woodson et al., OTO-HNS 2018.
2. Heiser et al., ERJ 2019.