Daniel Sheiner, a software programmer and designer suffered from continuous exhaustion and fatigue and all through the day.
Sheiner suspected that he had sleep apnea which ran in his family, despite the fact that he was not overweight, which was the major reason for the disorder. This was confirmed by a sleep study and his doctors stated that his case was one of the worst cases of sleep apnea. Finally, after undergoing various treatments his doctors decided to perform a robotic surgery.
Erica Thaler, an ENT surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital reveals that Sheiner’s sleep study showed that he woke up over 112 times every hour meaning that Sheiner didn’t breathe for ten seconds i.e. about two times in a minute. Sleep apnea is being treated with a robotic surgery to remove the cancerous tumors found at the back of the throat. Sleep apnea is a common and chronic sleep disorder where patients stop breathing while asleep. They suddenly and repeatedly gasp for breath in the night due to enlarged tonsilar tissue and tonsils, their airways are blocked.
Daniel too had very large tonsils, which obstructed the back of his tongue and his soft palate. He was connected to a nighttime breathing machine called the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machine or CPAP. He lay with a face mask, which was connected to a tube, which in turn was linked to the equipment that sent air into his mouth and nose. According to Thaler, the CPAP works for about 50% of the patients who have tried it. Sheiner was highly committed to trying it and hence Thaler suggested a robotic surgery for the removal of excess tissue and tonsils. She states that the robot hands being tiny are more dexterous and can access small confined spaces and do just what needs to be done, by a remote operation. The surgery was performed on Sheiner and the excess tissue and tonsils were removed and Sheiner became one of the six patients to have had robotic surgery for apnea. According to Sheiner, after the surgery his whole life changed and he found that he had new energy, an ability to focus and do things more efficiently.
However the option of surgery may not be right for everyone. According to Rashmi N Aurora, who is an acting sleep specialist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and also the Chairwoman of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s Standards of Practice Committee, she would not recommend surgery for obese middle aged people as a first option, as the patient has to first lose weight and only then CPAP could be performed; Then with help from a nutritionist along with shunning alcohol all together would cure sleep apnea. However, she would definitely suggest surgery for a thin and young patient suffering from severe apnea. Most of the times patients might need multiple surgeries to treat apnea but even then they don’t come with any guarantee of success as they are effective only for 20% to 30%. Aurora further mentions that currently the CPAP machines available are highly sophisticated, less noisy and cumbersome and can also sense the extent of blockage.