A New Direction for Sleep: New OSA guidelines fuel another evidence-based medicine debate

He also emphasized the critical need for more studies and the gaps in research that need to be addressed.

Until these gaps can be closed or at least tightened, otolaryngologists don’t have much evidence to use to develop guidelines on the surgical management of sleep apnea in adults. “We are not ready to publish next week our own counter practice parameters,” said Dr. Harwick, “but we realize that we need to do that, and we need to come to a consensus on how we are going to do this.”

Dr. Weaver agreed that when sleep apnea guidelines are developed, otolaryngologists need to be involved. “We offer a unique and important perspective,” he said. “This is true for general sleep apnea guidelines and especially for sleep apnea surgery guidelines.”