Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep-related breathing disorder that is caused by a collapse of the upper airway. Current standard therapy is the continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP), which is limited in its effectiveness due to poor compliance. A new functional therapy approach is the stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve (HNS) by an implantable device to restore the tone of the upper airway dilator muscles.

The update search for this first update did not identify any additional RCTs for assessing effectiveness. For safety assessment, we included five single-arm prospective studies and one registry study.

The inclusion in the Austrian catalogue of benefits is currently not recommended based on the available evidence. A new evaluation is proposed for the year 2021.