Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty may decrease the incidence of Parkinson’s disease associated with obstructive sleep apnea

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the incidence of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is increased among patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and whether surgical treatment can prevent such an increase. This was a retrospective cohort study. We analysed the claims data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service. A total of 202,726 patients who were newly diagnosed with OSA between 2007 and 2014 were included. The patients were divided into two groups: patients who underwent uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (surgery group, n = 22,742) and those who did not (conservative group, n = 179,984). The control group (n = 1,013,630) was selected by propensity score matching. They were tracked until 31(st) December 2015. The hazard ratio of PD diagnosis (95% confidence interval) in the OSA group with respect to the control group was calculated using the Cox proportional hazard model. In the conservative group, the incidence of PD (hazard ratio 2.57 [2.32–2.85]) was significantly higher than that in the control group, while the incidence of PD in the surgery group was similar to that in the control group (hazard ratio 1.45 [0.89–2.22]). Patients with OSA are at an increased risk of developing PD, and uvulopalatopharyngoplasty may mitigate this risk.