Rodeo Drive Institute for Breathing Surgery
Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery is pleased to provide interdisciplinary care for people with breathing problems. Our world-class team provides advanced and innovative surgical solutions to the full spectrum of respiratory diseases. Our sophisticated surgical interventions can provide benefits for these breathing problems:
Airway issues:
- Sleep apnea
- Snoring
Phrenic Nerve Issues, Including Phrenic Nerve Pacing of the Diaphragm:
- Quadriplegia, complete or incomplete
- Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS)
- Diaphragm paralysis, known or unknown etiology
- Primary alveolar hypoventilation
- Central sleep apnea
- Brainstem stroke
- Brain injury or tumor
- Arnold-Chiari malformation
Sleep apnea and snoring surgery can open the airway at one or more anatomic levels to allow free airflow during sleep. This works everywhere from the nose (at the septum, often treated during rhinoplasty) to the deeper parts of the back of the mouth and the throat. The correction of sleep apnea has proven benefits to cardiac health, overall medical status, and life expectancy.
Phrenic nerve pacing provides appropriate patients with the opportunity to return their diaphragm (the muscle that pulls air into the lungs) to meaningful work driving their breathing. For some quadriplegic patients and others listed above, this means they can breathe without having to use a ventilator. For others, the surgery and device may allow for an injured or otherwise nonfunctional phrenic nerve to become functional in sending breathing signals to the diaphragm.
We have three surgeons on staff to provide appropriate candidates with solutions to their problems with breathing. Our surgeons come from three different surgical backgrounds, to provide care for people with all manner of respiratory disorders. Depending on the breathing treatment you require, you will be under the care of one or more of our center’s renowned specialists from plastic surgery, neurosurgery, and otolarynogology. Two members of our team (Drs. Krieger and Krieger) were recently flown to South America by the government of Brazil to perform their specialized phrenic nerve surgery to help a patient breathe off the respirator. They also have performed phrenic nerve pacing surgery in Switzerland, England, Turkey, Israel, and Chile.
Dr. Lloyd Krieger is a plastic surgeon and our Medical Director. He brings expertise to nerve repair and reconstruction. This is of benefit to patients needing nerve transfers or nerve grafts to use the phrenic nerve pacemaker, which can allow them to breathe without the aid of a the ventilator.
Dr. Abbott Krieger is a neurosurgeon who also has a doctorate in the neurological aspects of breathing. He has more than 30 years of clinical experience with phrenic nerve pacing, and was among the first surgeons to use the device. He has done pioneering work in developing nerve transfers for patients with high cervical spine injury, allowing them to become candidates for phrenic nerve pacing. This greatly expands the number of people who can achieve freedom the respirator.
Drs. Lloyd Krieger and Abbott Krieger after performing phrenic nerve surgery in Brazil.
Dr. Marc Kerner is a head and neck surgeon (otolaryngologist) who specializes in breathing surgery. He brings expertise to sleep apnea surgery, snoring surgery, and placement of the phrenic nerve pacemaker within the neck.
For more information on breathing surgery, phrenic nerve pacing, breathing surgery for quadriplegics, or other issues such as snoring surgery or sleep apnea treatment, please contact us.
Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery serves the Beverly Hills and Los Angeles areas in Southern California. Our Beverly Hills plastic surgeon specializes in breast augmentation. For more information about breast implants in Beverly Hills, or breast augmentation financing, please contact us
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