Tien 1

Raymond Tien

Period 1

Primary Research Summary

In my primary research, I conducted four interviews and did document analysis on two

documents. The interviewees were Dr. Wong, Dr. Khan, Dr.Smith, and Dr. Michael Smith. This

primary research was conducted in order to get professional opinions and a definite answer to my

research question: Which is more effective treating sleep apnea? UPPP or CPAP?

Dr. Wong is a sleep specialist that I had interviewed quite recently. We discussed for

around 45 minutes that let

Dr. Khan was an allergist, of my dad, that before I knew exactly what I wanted to

research, I conducted an interview with. After Dr. Khans interview, I learned a lot. It was

concluded that sleep apnea and asthma can go hand and hand. In addition to this, 35% patients

with sleep apnea also have some sort of allergies with their sleep apnea. Yet there is no treatment

that could treat both sleep apnea and asthma simultaneously.

Dr. Michael Smith is a sleep specialist that works at Johns Hopkins. In this interview

concluded that most medical professionals are always going to prefer the CPAP machine rather

than UPPP. UPPP is much more of a hassle than it seems to be. You have to pay for an

expensive procedure, go through surgery, it doesnt always work, sometimes can be painful for

patients, and the morbidity is higher than the CPAP machine. Morbidity is the risk that a patient

takes while going through a type of treatment. The CPAP machine has a very low morbidity rate,

it is effective, and it has always works on the patients that use them properly.
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Dr. Smith is a sleep specialist that works at the American Sleep Medicine Center. This

interview took place when I knew exactly what I wanted to know. So what I can conclude from

this interview was that the use of the CPAP machine was much more efficient than the procedure

of UPPP. He states that if patients actually use the CPAP machine, it will 100% work if the

patient is comfortable using it. He did say that UPPP has its benefits, but they dont outweigh the

the benefits of the CPAP machine.

These interviews have shown that doctors will tend to recommend the treatment of CPAP

first, and it is less often than more better than UPPP. The doctors say that the CPAP has the

highest success rate and that UPPP has a lesser success rate. CPAP has the lowest morbidity rate

which makes it the least risky and ideal for sleep apnea patients.

The documents that I had analyzed also followed the same pattern as the interview did.

Both of the articles that I had analyzed showed that the use of the CPAP machine is the go to

treatment for most doctors. I cannot speak on behalf of all doctors, but most say CPAP is much

more effective and efficient than UPPP.

This completely objects against my original hypothesis where I said UPPP is much more

effective than CPAP in the treatment of sleep apnea. After all of this primary research, my

hypothesis has been completely wrong and I can conclude that the use of a CPAP machine is the

most effective way to treat sleep apnea.