Patient Information
Adults
What to expect:
Our new patient Sleep Surgery Consultations are booked for 30mins to allow time for us to cover:
- Your detailed history
- Complete physical assessment
The physical assessment will involve Nasoendoscopy.
Nasoendoscopy is a thin, fibre-optic camera inserted via your nose and over the back of your palate/tongue whilst being projected onto our screen. Your entire upper airway will be assessed in 3 positions - while you are seated, lying flat and on your side. Some manoeuvres will be performed to imitate sleep and obstruction.
This part of the examination takes approximately 3-5 mins and is simply uncomfortable rather than painful. We use some decongestant/local anaesthetic nasal spray prior to minimise discomfort
We ask that you complete these three questionnaires PRIOR to attending your appointment (and return via email, so we can view prior to Consultation):
Please bring with you:
Before your consultation:
Consider your goals for treatment. Include your partner in the discussion.
- Is your main objective to stop snoring?
- Or is it reducing the risks and symptoms of OSA?
- It may be all of the above.
Remember to complete the questionnaires and return them via email so we can review your answers before your consultation.
Children
How to prepare:
Our new patient Sleep Surgery consultations for children are heavily reliant on the history from parents, and supplemented by examination findings.
If you have any video footage of your little one sleeping on an average night (when feeling well) that records your child snoring, working hard to breathe and/or gasping or pauses in breathing (and are happy to share this with us) it can greatly enhance our assessment.
If not, we ask that you take some time to observe your child asleep for a few minutes each night and record your observations prior to your consultation so we get an accurate history of their sleep breathing patterns.
Please bring with you:
Our assessment will involve a look in the throat at the tonsils, in the nose, a feel of the neck and inspection of the ears.
(Always good to pre-warn the little ones we will be having a look – there are lolly rewards!)
If things are unclear – sometimes we might discuss looking in the nose with our nasoendoscope (a thin, fibre-optic camera inserted via nose and over the back of palate/tongue). Most children do not tolerate this and we would never perform this if you or your child are uncomfortable with the idea.
If we need to investigate further:
If there are still some unknowns in terms of the cause of the snoring/OSA we have the option of performing a Drug Induced Sleep Endoscopy (DISE).
DISE is a day procedure where we examine the airway of the child with some sedation (mimicking sleep) in the operating room of the hospital. It is a great way of investigating the cause of snoring/OSA in children, particularly where the child has previously had tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, or has other concurrent medical conditions.
Helping you get
a better night's sleep
We take the time and explain things very thoroughly. Our goal is for you to understand your options and feel empowered to make the right decisions for your health and wellbeing.