Implant Might Cure Snoring In Patients With Apnex System

By: Mary Smith
Staff Writer
Published: Dec 28, 2021

Implant Might Cure Snoring In Patients With Apnex System. A new implant called the Apnex System might be the cure to snoring. The patient would have to undergo surgery to achieve the proper effect.

Apnex System is a tiny box, no larger than a matchbox, that is implanted into the patient's chest. The device works by stimulating the muscles responsible for keeping the breathing passages open during sleep. The implant can switch itself on for the patient's bedtime and turn itself off when they wake up to prevent snoring.

Surgeons would implant the device below the collarbone on the right side of the torso. Trials are currently underway in the US and Australia. Its creators hope that the device, if successful, would be widely available by 2013.

Professor John Stradling, an expert in respiratory medicine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, saidl that the science behind the device was "entirely plausible".

"They worked to some extent. But there were reports that patients could feel the device during the night, which kept them awake. And in some early models, the wires broke. It also involves surgery. I think this device might suit a few people, but it is a long way from becoming standard treatment," Stradling said in a statement.