Mattress and pillow for prone positioning for treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea

Abstract

Conclusion: The new mattress and pillow for prone positioning (MPP) is efficient in reducing the apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) and oxygen desaturation index (ODI) in most patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), with satisfactory compliance. Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the prone body and head sleep position on severity of disease in patients with OSA after 4 weeks of adaptation to a mattress and pillow facilitating prone positioning. Methods: Fourteen patients with mild to severe OSA, 11 men and 3 women with a mean AHI of 26 (min, 6; max, 53) and mean ODI of 21 (min, 6; max, 51) were evaluated. Two polysomnographic (PSG) studies were performed. The first PSG study was without any treatment and the second was after 4 weeks of adaptation to the MPP for prone positioning of the body and the head. Results: Mean AHI and ODI decreased from 26 and 21 to 8 and 7, respectively (p < 0.001) with treatment. The mean time spent in the supine position was reduced from 128 to 10 min (p = 0.02) and the prone time increased from 42 to 174 min (p = 0.02) with the MPP. The mean total sleep time was 390 min during the first PSG study night without treatment and 370 min during the second night with the MPP (p = 0.7). Ten patients (71%) reduced their AHI by at least 50% and reached a value < 10 during treatment. All patients managed to sleep on the MPP for > 4 h per night during the 4-week study.

Keywords:

• Positional treatment
• prone sleep position
• lateral sleep position
• supine sleep position
• non-invasive
• conservative
• non-surgical treatment
• polysomnography

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Raquel Praça Silva and Arash Bidarian-Moniri for their important contributions to the design and the development of the MPP, Christopher Oldmeadow for his feedback on the final draft, Carlos Praça for drawing the 3D models of the MPP, Fernando Molina for the production of the instruction video, Ann-Christin Mjörnheim and Henrik Söderström for their assistance in performance of the PSG registrations and the participating patients for their valuable feedback.

Declaration of interest: This study was partially financed by the Acta Otolaryngologica Foundation, Sweden. The sponsor had no role whatsoever in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Armin Bidarian-Moniri is the patent-holder for the ‘Pillow and Mattress for Reducing Snoring and Sleep Apnoea’.