The Perioperative Utilization of Sleep Monitoring Applications on Smart Phones in Habitual Snorers With Isolated Inferior Turbinate Hypertrophy

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the novel use of sleep monitoring applications in simple snorers undergoing concha radiofrequency surgery and to compare and correlate the pre- and postoperative symptoms of these patients using the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scale. In this retrospective analysis, we have selected 18 consecutive patients with no comorbid sleep or medical disorders suffering from chronic nasal blockage and habitual snoring due to isolated submucous inferior turbinate hyperplasia. After a median follow-up of 8.3 months, the NOSE scale and snoring sound intensity levels monitored by the smart phone application showed statistically significant improvements after the surgical procedure ( P < .05), and we also detected a positive correlation between the levels of snoring percentage and the total NOSE scores ( P < .05). We hypothesize that sleep monitoring applications could be easily used as portable monitors for basic home sleep studies in conjunction with a comprehensive sleep evaluation. Alternatively, such applications may simply be used for objective monitoring of the postoperative success of surgical interventions in the upper respiratory tract region such as concha reduction surgeries as presented herein.