On June 14, 2024, Dr. Brian Brodish, an otolaryngologist with Eastern Carolina ENT, in collaboration with ECU Health, performed his 100th Inspire procedure at ECU Health Medical Center. Inspire is an FDA-approved obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) treatment option for people who cannot use Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy.
“We have a high incidence of sleep apnea in eastern North Carolina, but a lot of patients can’t tolerate a CPAP,” said Dr. Brodish. “There’s a significant morbidity to not treating sleep apnea, and up until now, I had nothing to offer. This is one of the first successful surgical alternatives for our patients with sleep apnea.”
OSA affects 22 million Americans. When left untreated, it doesn’t just affect one person, but also those around them. OSA can cause vehicle and workplace accidents, worsening mood and memory, stroke, heart attack and other serious issues.
CPAP is the main treatment for OSA, but unfortunately a large percentage of people don’t see benefit from or can’t tolerate CPAP. Dr. Brodish is proud to offer Inspire as another treatment option for this population.
“Patients were feeling miserable and had nowhere to turn,” Dr. Brodish said. “I finally have a tool I can offer these patients and we’re seeing fantastic results. It’s a low-risk procedure and patients recover in a few weeks.”
Inspire works inside the body with a patient’s natural breathing process to treat sleep apnea. Mild stimulation opens the airway during sleep, allowing oxygen to flow naturally. The patient uses a small handheld remote to turn Inspire on before bed and off when they wake up.
“We want the patient to use the device for at least four hours a night or more, and we are looking for their apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which is the number of times per hour a patient stops breathing, to be below 15,” Dr. Brodish explained. “Some of our patients stop breathing more than 50 times a night before treatment, but 80 percent of our patients have achieved our goal of 15 episodes or less. Some have even achieved zero.”
The Inspire system is implanted during a short, outpatient procedure. The system is placed under the skin of the neck and chest through two small incisions. Most patients return home the same day and take over-the-counter pain medications to manage pain as needed.
“We are excited to have completed the 100th Inspire procedure at ECU Health Medical Center,” said Dr. Brodish. “This option is a part of ECU Health’s goal to provide state-of-the-art, high-quality care for eastern North Carolina, and we’re seeing patients benefit from this technology.”