Treatment outcome of oral appliance in patients with REM-related obstructive sleep apnea.

Purpose: Oral appliances (OA) are used to treat patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of OA treatment in patients with rapid eye movement (REM)-related OSA.

Methods: Forty-six patients with REM-related OSA and 107 with non-stage-specific OSA were prescribed OA treatment after diagnosis by polysomnography (PSG) and a follow-up sleep test by PSG was conducted. Efficacy and treatment outcome predictors were evaluated according to the following criteria for treatment success: #1, reduction of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) to less than 5 and > 50% compared with baseline; #2, AHI reduction to less than 10 and > 50% compared with baseline; and #3, > 50% AHI reduction compared with baseline.

Results: Success rates according to criteria #1, #2, and #3 were 45.7%, 50.0%, and 50.0% in REM-related OSA and 36.4%, 52.3%, and 63.6% in non-stage-specific OSA, respectively. No significant differences in success rate were found between the two groups. In multivariate logistic regression analysis with each criterion as the response variable, only BMI was extracted as a significant predictor. The BMI cutoff values defined based on the maximum Youden index according to the three criteria were 26.2 kg/m, 25.6 kg/m, and 26.2 kg/m, respectively.

Conclusions: No significant differences in success rate of OA treatment were found between REM-related OSA and non-stage-specific OSA. BMI has greater impact on treatment outcome of OA in patients with REM-related OSA.