Innovations and New Technologies in Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Snoring in the Era of Precision Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common form of sleep-disordered breathing and is characterised by recurrent episodes of complete or partial upper airway obstruction during sleep, resulting in oxygen desaturation, autonomic dysfunction, and sleep fragmentation. If untreated, OSA may cause excessive daytime sleepiness, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cerebrovascular incidents, and even sudden cardiac death. Although OSA is very common, it is a frequently unrecognised cause of serious disability with serious health and social consequences.  Currently, OSA can be diagnosed with several methods from laboratory-based to home sleep testing. To date, the gold standard method is full-night polysomnography (PSG). However, it is an expensive examination (equipment, maintenance costs, staff costs, and full-night-time occupation of the laboratory), and it can also be annoying due to the attached sensors and the exam taking place in an unfamiliar place. For these reasons, cheaper and portable devices have been developed to detect OSA outside the hospital setting. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is often used as first line-treatment; however, failure in long-term adherence to CPAP treatment was reported in 25–50% of cases. For these reasons, in recent years, OSA and snoring surgical management underwent significant changes with the introduction of new surgical procedures that are less invasive or have lower morbidity, improving patients’ compliance, making OSA surgery a reasonable alternative.

We encourage authors to submit original or review articles on related topics in the field of sleep apnea.

This Special Issue of Healthcare is dedicated to offering an overview of these innovations. Topics of interest include (1) new diagnostic tools for screening, (2) telemedicine and mHealth, (3) new intrapharyngeal and hypopharyngeal surgical procedures, (4) surgical and non-surgical treatment of nasal obstruction in OSA patients, (5) myofunctional and rehabilitation therapy, (6) electrical stimulation devices, and (7) international research networks.

Groups from all specialties are encouraged to submit original research, project reports, short reports, reviews, and opinion papers.

Dr. Antonio Moffa
Prof. Dr. Manuele Casale
Dr. Peter Baptista
Guest Editors

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