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The Role of the Nose in Pharyngeal Obstructions

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The Role of Epiglottis in Obstructive Sleep Apnea
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Abstract

The impact of nasal obstruction on sleep and on patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is still a matter of great debate. This might be related to the conflicting evidence of nasal treatments aiming at a restorative sleep on the one hand and its influence on the severity of OSA on the other hand.

Nonetheless, conservative and surgical nasal treatments result in a significant improvement of the quality of sleep. Patients experience a more restorative sleep with huge impact on several quality of life parameters.

In contrast, the impact of nasal treatments on the severity of OSA is limited, leading to the conclusion that the nose does not seem to play a very significant role in the pathogenesis of OSA. Especially, the potential presence of a causal connection between nasal breathing and laryngeal obstruction caused during sleep has not been investigated so far.

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Verse, T. (2023). The Role of the Nose in Pharyngeal Obstructions. In: Delakorda, M., de Vries, N. (eds) The Role of Epiglottis in Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34992-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34992-8_13

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