ABSTRACT
Abstract Objective: Sleep is fundamental for both health and wellness. The advent of "on a chip" and "smartphone" technologies have created an explosion of inexpensive, at-home applications and devices specifically addressing sleep health and sleep disordered breathing. Sleep-related smartphone Applications and devices are offering diagnosis, management, and treatment of a variety of sleep disorders, mainly obstructive sleep apnea. New technology requires both a learning curve and a review of reliability. Our objective was to evaluate which app have scientific publications as well as their potential to help in the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of sleep disordered breathing. Methods: We search for relevant sleep apnea related apps on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. In addition, an exhaustive literature search was carried out in MEDLINE, EMBase, web of science and Scopus for works of apps or devices that have published in the scientific literature and have been used in a clinical setting for diagnosis or treatment of sleep disordered breathing performing a systematic review. Results: We found 10 smartphone apps that met the inclusion criteria. Conclusions: The development of these apps and devices has a great future, but today are not as accurate as other traditional options. This new technology offers accessible, inexpensive, and continuous at home data monitoring of obstructive sleep apnea, but still does not count with proper testing and their validation may be unreliable.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess clinical and functional outcomes of a fat graft myringoplasty under local in an office setting. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective case series. SETTING: Tertiary care facility. PATIENTS: Patients with a tympanic membrane (TM) perforation presenting between December 2005 and June 2019. Inclusion criteria included perforation size >25% of the surface of the pars tensa of the TM, entire perforation margins visualized through a transcanal view, and lack of spontaneous closure at the 6-month follow-up. The exclusion criteria were the presence of cholesteatoma, wet appearance of the mucosa in the tympanic cavity, ear discharge in the 3 months before surgery, or signs of ossicular inconsistency. INTERVENTION: In-office fat graft myringoplasty technique under local anesthesia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Complete perforation closure rate and audiometric outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 121 patients underwent the procedure, of whom 21 had bilateral sequential procedures (total 142 ears). Average age was 51.1 ± 18.4 years (range, 3-78 years). The size of perforation was <25% of TM in 39 (27.5%) ears, 25% to 50% of TM in 49 (34.55%) ears, 50% to 75% of TM in 34 (23.91%) ears, and 75% to 100% of TM in 20 (14.10%) ears. Complete perforation closure was evident in 130 (91.55%) of the 142 ears. Preoperative mean air conduction threshold was 59.3 dB (17-95 dB) and significantly improved into 35.6 dB (10-85 dB; P < .0004) after surgery. Preoperative air-bone gap was 30.2 dB (5-70 dB) and also significantly improved into 10.2 dB (5-65 dB; P < .0001) after surgery. CONCLUSION: In office fat graft myringoplasty, in adult and pediatric patients with variable perforation sizes, is a well-tolerated procedure with very satisfactory clinical results.
