Recent Articles Related to Orofacial Myology

Sleep 2004;27(2):254-9.

Tongue-muscle training by intraoral electrical neurostimulation in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

RANDERATH WJ, GALETKE W, DOMANSKI U, WEITKUNAT R, RUHLE KH.
Bethanien Hospital, Clinic for Pneumology and Allergology, Center of Sleep Medicine and Ventilatory Care, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany. Randerath@klinik-bethanien.de

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficacy of tongue-muscle training by electrical neurostimulation of the upper-airway muscles as an alternative therapy option for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. DESIGN: A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. SETTING: Department of pneumology and sleep laboratory, University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany. PATIENTS: 67 patients with an apnea-hypopnea index of 10 to 40 per hour were randomly assigned to 2 groups: a treatment group of 33 patients (mean age, 50.8 +/- 12.1 years; mean body mass index, 29.1 +/- 4.4kg/m2) and a placebo group of 34 patients (mean age, 53.5 +/- 11.3 years; mean body mass index, 28.9 +/- 4.9 kg/m2). Fifty-seven patients completed the study. INTERVENTIONS: Tongue-muscle training during the daytime for 20 minutes twice a day for 8 weeks. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Treatment efficacy was examined by polysomnography. Snoring, but not apnea-hypopnea index, improved with stimulation (snoring baseline, 63.9 +/- 23.1 epochs per hour; stimulation training, 47.5 +/- 31.2; P < .05) but not with placebo training (snoring baseline, 62.4 +/- 26.1 epochs per hour; placebo, 62.1 +/- 23.8; NS.) CONCLUSIONS: Although tongue-muscle training cannot generally be recommended for the treatment of sleep apnea, the method has proven to be effective in the treatment of snoring.