Ching-Wen Hsiao* and Ching-Hsia Hung
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Stem Cell Res Ther
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) which is an apnea or hypopnea occlusion events of the upper airway during sleep. It is particularly prevalent in the aging population. Myofunctional training (MFT) in oropharyngeal rehabilitation is one of the approved interventions with the advantages of improving the severity of obstruction, subjective daytime sleepiness and sleep quality. The force sensing resistor (FSR) has the advantages of home-based training and recording and better adherence that could deal with the low motivation of OSA treatment about MFT and increasing participation as a result of the FSR biofeedback. Consequently, this research found out the efficacy of twelve weeks MFT using FSR in elder patients with OSA. Aging subjects greater than 50 years old diagnosed with mild to moderate OSA (5 �?� apnea/ hypopnea index < 30 events/hour) gave the informed consent to participants and according to their willingness divided into control (n=3) or FSR (n=8) group. Thirteen myofunctional exercises were planned for this study with FSR biofeedback which provided a tongue bulb. OSA patients in control group accepted the thirteen myofunctional exercises in a health education leaflet with a diary form. OSA participants in FSR group accepted thirteen myofunctional exercises with FSR biofeedback recording five sets tongue movements included elevation, depression, protrusion and lateralization. The intensity and frequency recording in FSR that could be modulated weekly according to participants’ FSR micro SD card. Outcome measurement about questionnaires, polysomnography, jaw and tongue muscle performance and compliance were used for examination at baseline and posttest. The results showed that the significance improved of jaw muscle performance (change [Δ] =4.67±0.86, p=.000), tongue elevation (change [Δ] =28.25±17.65, p=.003), tongue depression (change [Δ] =25.13±12.17, p=.001), tongue protrusion (change [Δ] =23.37±8.94, p=.000) and tongue lateralization (change [Δ] =20.69±10.42, p=.001) in the within-group comparison of FSR group. No significant difference was found in the result of questionnaires and polysomnography. The current findings suggested that twelve weeks MFT executing through FSR was a promising alternative treatment in patients with mild to moderate OSA which has the effect on enhancing the jaw and tongue muscle performance. Future studies can point at the long-term effects of MFT program with FSR, or more objective recording approaches of group home-based training, to provide more extensive methods of oropharyngeal rehabilitation in OSA.
Ching-Wen Hsiao majors in physical therapy and earned the bachelor degree of physical therapy in 2020. She had a nine month practice experience as hospital physical therapist and studied in master degree of physical therapy till now. With the enthusiasm about research knowledge, she decided to complete the master degree comprehensively and currently studied at Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan since 2020. Her research interests focuses on sleep-related breathing disorder about obstructive sleep apnea and cardiopulmonary physiotherapy for oropharyngeal rehabilitation.