What to Consider for Sleep Apnea Treatment

Last year almost 250,000 people in the United States underwent eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty. Because aging causes the skin around the eye to sag, blepharoplasty has risen to become one of the most sought-after plastic surgery procedures for patients over the age of 35. The extremely thin skin making up the eyelids starts to lose its elasticity and stretch, and it�s largely a hereditary condition. If your siblings and parents have saggy eyelids, you probably do as well.

Usually the removal of excess skin and fat from the eyelids is performed for cosmetic reasons. However, upper blepharoplasty can be medically necessary when the excess skin covers the eyelid margin or deflects the eyelashes downward, impairing the patient�s vision.

To ensure that upper eyelid surgery is a medical necessity rather than a cosmetic condition, case managers should consider having the patient take good, high resolution photographs of the eye region. If the upper eyelid margin of the eye crosses the plain of pupil in the photo, then further testing can be done. An ophthalmologist can run a visual field mapping test on the patient. If the patient�s visual interference with upper case letters is at 20 percent above horizon, and if taping the patient�s eyelids back improves his or her vision 20 degrees above the horizon, then the treatment probably is required.

This, along with a documented patient medical chart showing a long standing visual issue, are strong indicators to the case manager that upper eyelid surgery is a medical necessity.

AllMed Healthcare Management Founded in 1995, AllMed (http://www.allmedmd.com, http://www.allmedmd.com/blog/index.htm) is a URAC-accredited Independent Review Organization (IRO) serving insurance payers, providers, TPAs and claims managers nationwide. Reviews are conducted by board-certified physicians in active practice. AllMed's growing customer base includes premier organizations, such as Educator's Mutual Life, IMS Managed Care, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, HealthGuard, several Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, Allianz and many other leading healthcare payers.

Latest Sleep Apnea News

Study shows how sleep apnea may cause stroke (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
A dangerous type of snoring known as sleep apnea can cause stroke by decreasing blood flow, raising blood pressure and harming the brain's ability to modulate these changes, researchers reported on Tuesday.

What Is The Connection Between Sleep Apnea, Stroke And Death? (Science Daily)
Obstructive sleep apnea decreases blood flow to the brain, elevates blood pressure within the brain and eventually harms the brain's ability to modulate these changes and prevent damage to itself. The findings may help explain why people with sleep apnea are more likely to suffer strokes and to die in their sleep.

Sleep Apnea Connection to Stroke and Death Explained by New Study (Senior Journal)
Jan. 6, 2009 –Obstructive sleep apnea decreases blood flow to the brain, elevates blood pressure within the brain and eventually harms the brain’s ability to modulate these changes and prevent damage to itself, according to a new study.

Study helps explain connection between sleep apnea, stroke and death (PhysOrg)
Obstructive sleep apnea decreases blood flow to the brain, elevates blood pressure within the brain and eventually harms the brain's ability to modulate these changes and prevent damage to itself, according to a new study published by The American Physiological Society. The findings may help explain why people with sleep apnea are more likely to suffer strokes and to die in their sleep.

Factors Other Than Central Sleep Apnea May Contribute To Poor Sleep Quality In Heart-Failure Patients (Medical News Today)
A study in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Sleep demonstrates that the frequent arousals from sleep that occur in heart failure patients with central sleep apnea (CSA) may reflect the presence of another underlying arousal disorder rather than being a defensive mechanism to terminate apneas.

Diabetics face sleep apnea risk (Detroit Free Press)
Here's a wake-up call to the millions of American men and women with Type 2 diabetes: Snoring at night or nodding off during the day may be symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, a potentially life-threatening problem affecting one out of three diabetics.

St. Mary’s opens sleep disorder center (St. Louis Business Journal)
SSM St. Mary’s Health Center has opened a new facility to treat people who suffer from daytime sleepiness, insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome and other sleep disorders.

Study Says Lack of Sleep Adds Plaque to Heart (ThirdAge)
MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- People in their 30s and 40s who got less sleep at night were more likely to develop the early buildup of plaque in the arteries of their heart , according to a new study.

CPAP's Future in an iPod World (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Metis Laboratories announces the PapWear(TM) system, a paradigm shift away from the current sleep apnea systems marketed by Respironics (PHG), ResMed (RMD), Fisher Paykel Healthcare (FPH), et al.

Going to the 'sleep nerd'; Technologist helps diagnose sleep disorders (Casper Star-Tribune)
GILLETTE -- Mark Beil has received a family heirloom that he could do without. They call it "the Beil Nose."