Sleep Apnea Improved After Obesity Surgery?

November 8, 2008

Sleep apnea was the topic at the annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Stockholm. Two studies were presented that revealed a benefit from obesity surgery over and above the weight loss. It can considerably lessen or stop apnea during sleep. This breathing disruption in sleep can result in snoring and is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Since obesity is now recognized as a major problem and contribute to such diseases as diabetes, this finding is of importance. With obese people, the fatty tissue around the neck narrows the airway so when the throat muscles relax when sleeping, the airway is narrowed even more. So it is good to lose weight with exercise and a diet that is low in calories. Obviously, this will also help prevent diabetes and delay or stop the complications.

Here's the other side of the equation. It has been found that obesity surgery may not put sleep apnea to rest. They say that sleep apnea oftentimes continues after obesity surgery. What is sleep apnea? In the obstructive type, breathing stops for a short time several times each night. This happens more often to those who are obese but it can also occur to those who are not overweight.

This shows that if the obstructive sleep apnea continues on after the bariatric surgery, then these people are taking a health risk because often they do not know that the condition is still there and I will tell you why in a while. You see this study included 24 adults who were severely obese who spent a night at the Walter Reed Medical Center's sleep lab in Washington, D.C. before surgery and then a year later.

They all lost weight after the surgery although they were still obese but not as much as before the operation. After a year, only one of the participants reported that he did not have the obstructive sleep apnea. The condition was not really changed except that the symptoms improved in different extent. Scroll down to see Sleep Apnea.


All of the participants still needed the machine for help so they can breathe better at night. However, only six of them were using the machine. So here's the answer to why some do not know if they still have the sleep apnea. It's because they snored less after they stopped using the machine.