{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.06566347469220246, 'fraction_numerical': 0.04377564979480164, 'mean_word_length': 4.1879432624113475, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 1, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Tongue-muscle training by intraoral electrical neurostimulation in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

STUDY OBJECTIVES
To investigate the efficacy of tongue-muscle training by electrical neurostimulation of the upper-airway muscles as an alternative therapy option for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.


DESIGN
A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study.


SETTING
Department of pneumology and sleep laboratory, University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany.


PATIENTS
67 patients with an apnea-hypopnea index of 10 to 40 per hour were randomly assigned to 2 groups: a treatment group of 33 patients (mean age, 50.8 +/- 12.1 years; mean body mass index, 29.1 +/- 4.4 kg/m2) and a placebo group of 34 patients (mean age, 53.3 +/- 11.3 years; mean body mass index, 28.9 +/- 4.9 kg/m2). Fifty-seven patients completed the study.


INTERVENTIONS
Tongue-muscle training during the daytime for 20 minutes twice a day for 8 weeks.


MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
Treatment efficacy was examined by polysomnography. Snoring, but not apnea-hypopnea index, improved with stimulation (snoring baseline, 63.9 +/- 23.1 epochs per hour; stimulation training, 47.5 +/- 31.2; P < .05) but not with placebo training (snoring baseline, 62.4 +/- 26.1 epochs per hour; placebo, 62.1 +/- 23.8; NS.).


CONCLUSIONS
Although tongue-muscle training cannot generally be recommended for the treatment of sleep apnea, the method has proven to be effective in the treatment of snoring.