Myofunctional Therapy to Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis SLEEP Camacho, M., Certal, V., Abdullatif, J., Zaghi, S., Ruoff, C. M., Capasso, R., Kushida, C. A. 2015; 38 (5): 669-?

Abstract

To systematically review the literature for articles evaluating myofunctional therapy (MT) as treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children and adults and to perform a meta-analysis on the polysomnographic, snoring, and sleepiness data.Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, and The Cochrane Library.The searches were performed through June 18, 2014. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement was followed.Nine adult studies (120 patients) reported polysomnography, snoring, and/or sleepiness outcomes. The pre- and post-MT apnea-hypopnea indices (AHI) decreased from a mean ± standard deviation (M ± SD) of 24.5 ± 14.3/h to 12.3 ± 11.8/h, mean difference (MD) -14.26 [95% confidence interval (CI) -20.98, -7.54], P < 0.0001. Lowest oxygen saturations improved from 83.9 ± 6.0% to 86.6 ± 7.3%, MD 4.19 (95% CI 1.85, 6.54), P =0.0005. Polysomnography snoring decreased from 14.05 ± 4.89% to 3.87 ± 4.12% of total sleep time, P < 0.001, and snoring decreased in all three studies reporting subjective outcomes. Epworth Sleepiness Scale decreased from 14.8 ± 3.5 to 8.2 ± 4.1. Two pediatric studies (25 patients) reported outcomes. In the first study of 14 children, the AHI decreased from 4.87 ± 3.0/h to 1.84 ± 3.2/h, P = 0.004. The second study evaluated children who were cured of OSA after adenotonsillectomy and palatal expansion, and found that 11 patients who continued MT remained cured (AHI 0.5 ± 0.4/h), whereas 13 controls had recurrent OSA (AHI 5.3 ± 1.5/h) after 4 y.Current literature demonstrates that myofunctional therapy decreases AHI by approximately 50% in adults and 62% in children. Lowest oxygen saturations, snoring, and sleepiness outcomes improve in adults. Myofunctional therapy could serve as an adjunct to other OSA treatments.

View details for DOI 10.5665/sleep.4652

View details for Web of Science ID 000353876600005

View details for PubMedID 25348130