According to Medpage Today, unilateral transvenous stimulation of the phrenic nerve was an effective treatment for heart failure patients with moderate to severe central sleep apnea.
Patients treated with an implantable neurostimulation system targeting a phrenic nerve showed significant reductions in apnea hypopnea index, increases in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and improved sleepiness and quality of life, reported Maria Rosa Costanzo, MD, of Advocate Heart Institute in Naperville, Ill., and colleagues.
Among 151 patients with heart-failure related CSA, more than half in the treatment group had a 50% or more reduction in apnea hypopnea index (AHI) at 6 months compared with controls, and 91% had no serious CSA-related adverse events over the following year, they said in a presentation at SLEEP 2016, the joint annual meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.
The average hourly AHI in the treated patients was around 25, compared with baseline hourly AHI of 46.
