The influence of position dependency on surgical success in patients with obstructive sleep apnea undergoing maxillomandibular advancement

Study Objectives: (1) To evaluate surgical success in patients with obstructive sleep apnea undergoing maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) stratifying for the reduction of both the total apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and the AHI in the supine and nonsupine position; (2) to evaluate the influence of position dependency on surgical outcome; and (3) to analyze the prevalence of residual position-dependent obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in nonresponders after MMA.

Methods: A single-center retrospective study including a consecutive series of patients with OSA undergoing MMA between August 2011 and February 2019.

Results: In total, 57 patients were included. The overall surgical success was 52.6%. No significant difference in surgical success between nonpositional patients (NPP) and positional patients (PP) with OSA was found. Surgical success of the supine AHI was not significantly different between NPP and PP, but surgical success of the nonsupine AHI was significantly greater in NPP than in PP. Of the 17 preoperative NPP, 13 of them moved to being PP with less severe OSA postoperatively. In total, 21 out of 27 nonresponders (77.8%) were PP postoperatively.

Conclusions: No significant difference in surgical success between NPP and PP undergoing MMA was found. However, the improvement of total and nonsupine AHI in NPP was significantly greater compared to PP. In nonresponders, a postoperative shift from severe OSA in NPP to less severe OSA in PP was found, caused by a greater reduction of the nonsupine AHI than the supine AHI postoperatively. In patients with residual OSA in the supine position after MMA, additional treatment with positional therapy can be indicated.