New surgical implant could cure snoring

Sick of your partner's snoring habits? Well, a high-tech implant might help you out.

A new, high-tech system-currently under development in England- could put an end to that common annoyance.

However, the patient would have to undergo surgery to achieve the proper effect, where the Apnex System, a tiny box the size of a matchbox, would be implanted in the chest.

The device works by stimulating the muscles responsible for keeping the breathing passages open during sleep.

The implant would be able to switch itself on for the patient's bedtime and turn itself off when they wake up.

Surgeons would implant the device below the collarbone on the right side of the torso.

Trials are currently underway in the US and Australia.

And its creators hope that the device, if successful, would be widely available by 2013.

Professor John Stradling, an expert in respiratory medicine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, told the Mail that the science behind the device was "entirely plausible".

He added that previous attempts to make similar devices have had muted results.

"They worked to some extent. But there were reports that patients could feel the device during the night, which kept them awake. And in some early models, the wires broke. It also involves surgery. I think this device might suit a few people, but it is a long way from becoming standard treatment," the New York Daily News quoted Stradling as saying.