Effectiveness of endoscopic sinus surgery and aspirin therapy in the management of aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease.

Background: Aspirin therapy and/or type 2 (T2) biologics are used in the management of aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD). Objective: To identify the number of patients with AERD who tolerated aspirin therapy, yet due to persistent symptoms, incorporated T2 biologic management. Methods: A retrospective review was performed between July 2016 and June 2019. Patients with AERD and who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS), aspirin desensitization (AD), and at least 6 months of aspirin therapy (ATAD) after AD, and who remained biologic-naive up through this timepoint were included in the study. Introduction of a T2 biologic while on ATAD was the primary outcome. The secondary outcome was a change in a validated patient-reported outcome measure for chronic rhinosinusitis score between the postoperative predesensitization timepoint, and the 6-month postdesensitization timepoint, presented as means and compared by using the Student's t-test. Results: A total of 103 patients met inclusion criteria. Two patients (1.9%) ultimately supplemented ATAD with a T2 biologic. The mean outcomes measure test score after 6 months of ATAD for patients who received biologics was 40.5 versus 15 in those who did not receive biologics (p = 0.02). The mean differences between the postoperative predesensitization test score and the 6-month postdesensitization test score for patients who went on to receive biologics was an increase of 13 versus a decrease of 10 for those patients who did not receive biologics (p = 0.12). Conclusion: ESS, coupled with AD and ATAD, was successful in the long-term management of the majority of the patients with AERD, which rarely required the incorporation of T2 biologics. Patient questionnaires, such as outcomes measure test score, may identify aspirin therapy failures and help guide the practitioner in deciding when to introduce T2 biologics into the patient's treatment regimen.

Reduced usage of upper airway stimulation therapy in patients with comorbid insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Upper airway stimulation (UAS) is a hybrid surgical-medical device used to treat moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Comorbid insomnia and OSA (COMISA) is present in ∼50% of these patients. Our aim was to study UAS outcomes and adherence in patients with COMISA. METHODS: A retrospective review of 379 patients with OSA who underwent UAS implantation at a single institution between 2014 and 2021. Demographics, OSA severity metrics, and insomnia data were collected. Patients were categorized into OSA alone (OSAa) or COMISA. Objective adherence data were collected from device downloads during follow-up. Data were analyzed with using R Studio (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) and Prism (Boston, MA, USA). RESULTS: Of the 274 patients included, 148 had COMISA (54.0%) and 126 OSAa (46.0%). Average follow-up time was 2.5 years and OSAa had more males than COMISA (P < .001). Patients with COMISA had higher insomnia severity index scores than OSAa preoperatively (16 vs 8.7; P = .003). All groups showed significant decreases in objective and self-reported OSA outcomes postoperatively, but there was no difference between COMISA and OSAa. Patient with COMISA had decreased device usage (4.9 vs 5.8 h/night; P = .015) and paused therapy more often than patients with OSAa (1.4 vs 0.4 pauses/night; P < .001). Multivariate linear regression, when controlling for sex as a covariate, showed insomnia to be an independent predictor of lower UAS hours/night and more pauses/night (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with COMISA use UAS therapy for shorter durations and require more breaks from therapy when compared with those with OSAa. Future research is needed to explore the underlying mechanism and improve UAS treatment adherence in patients with COMISA. CITATION: Kaffenberger TM, Chandna M, Kaki P, et al. Reduced usage of upper airway stimulation therapy in patients with comorbid insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. J Clin Sleep Med. 2023;19(12):1997-2004.

Major complications of aspirin desensitization and maintenance therapy in aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) includes endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and aspirin desensitization (AD) with aspirin therapy after desensitization (ATAD). The objective of this study was to determine the rate of major complications associated with aspirin use that resulted in the discontinuation of aspirin therapy. METHODS: This study was a retrospective chart review of patients with AERD who underwent ESS, AD, and ATAD at a single AERD tertiary center between July 2016 and February 2019. Complications associated with aspirin that resulted in the discontinuation of aspirin therapy were analyzed via analysis of variance and logistic regression. RESULTS: In total, 109 AERD patients underwent ESS with subsequent AD. Ten patients (9.2%) discontinued therapy after AD, before starting ATAD. Eight patients (7.3%) discontinued therapy after starting ATAD. There were 91 patients (83.5%) with no complications throughout ATAD. Reasons for discontinuation included gastritis, upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleed, anaphylaxis, persistent sinonasal symptoms, recurrent epistaxis, asthma exacerbation, and a nummular rash. There was no significant correlation between complication rate and (1) aspirin doses (analysis of variance [ANOVA] F: 0.69; p = 0.51), (2) gender (odds ratio [OR] 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.19 to 1.65; p = 0.30), (3) age (OR 1.04; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.09; p = 0.06), or (4) race/ethnicity (OR 1.12; 95% CI, 0.88 to 1.44; p = 0.36). CONCLUSION: AD with ATAD was associated with only a 0.92% incidence of a clinically significant GI bleed, and only a 0.92% incidence of anaphylaxis. A remaining 16 patients (14.7%) discontinued aspirin therapy due to minor clinical sequelae. These findings demonstrate that the majority of AERD patients tolerate AD with ATAD without any major complications.