Skip to main content

Sleep Apnea, Breath Pauses and Loud Snoring During Sleep

SLEEP APNEA/HYPOPNEA SYNDROME

Sleep apnea or Central Sleep Apnea syndrome is characterized by recurrent upper airway obstruction during sleep when the loss of normal pharyngeal tone allows the pharynx to collapse passively during inspiration Which causes Loud Snoring and Breath Pauses (apnea) in affected person

Aetiology and Causes of Sleep Apnea

  • Male gender
  • Obesity
  • Tonsillar hypertrophy
  • Nasal obstruction
  • Hypothyroidism
  • acromegaly
  • Ingestion of alcohol or sedatives before sleep

Clinical features of Sleep Apneasleep apnea, lound snoring during sleep causes

  • If the narrowing is slight, it leads to snoring. If upper airway narrowing progresses to the point of occlusion or near occlusion, a sleeping person increases respiratory effort and try to breathe until the increased effort transiently awaken him. This recurrent cycle of apnea, awakening, apnea, awakening may repeat itself many hundreds of times per night. The patient complains of day - time sleepiness, he feels he has been asleep all night but still he does not feel fresh. 
  • Bed partner reports loud snoring and often have noticed multiple breathing pauses (apnea).
  • The patient also complains of difficulty in concentration, impaired cognitive function, impaired memory and work performance, depression, loss of libido, irritability and nocturia.
  • Hypertension and ischemic heart disease are also complications.
  • Examination
  • Nasal obstruction
  • Narrow oropharynx due to excessive soft tissue folds, large tonsils or prominent tongue. Features of pulmonary hypertension or cor-pulmonale ( see Disorders predispose to cor pulmonale) may be present.

Investigations of Sleep Apnea

Polysomnography: this is the overnight study of breathing, oxygenation (oxygen saturation) and sleep quality. It shows apnea episodes as long as 60 seconds, oxygen saturation falls often to a very low level and Brady or tachyarrhythmias.

Treatment of Sleep Apnea

• Weight loss
• Strict avoidance of alcohol and hypnotic medications.
• Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nasal CPAP) is curative in many patients.
• Treatment of curable conditions such as deviated nasal septum.
• Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty: a procedure consisting of resection of pharyngeal soft tissue and amputation of approximately 15 mm of the free edge of the soft palate and uvula is helpful in about 50% of cases.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Post Your Reply and Give Your Opinion About the Post

Popular posts from this blog

IELTS or OET - Reviews - Personal Experience - Which to Choose - IETLS vs OET

OET and IELTS both are used to assess the knowledge of English Language. The basic difference between the above two is this, IETLS is a more generalized English language assessment test, on the other hand, OET is profession specific. For example, if you are a doctor, the content of the test will be related to your occupation. Because of this, the OET is being chosen by many healthcare professional instead of IELTS. Both tests have the same sub-categories, that is listening, speaking, writing and reading. Lets us discuss the differences one by one. TEST OET IELTS OET Compared to IELTS is ………. (Author’s opinion) Speaking You will need to do two role plays. You will be given a situation and asked to counsel the patient about a disease and treatment or break the bad news. It has 3 parts, first is an introduction and general question, In the second part you will be provided with a topic to speak for 2 minutes. In the 3rd part, you will b...
Post a Comment
Read more.>>

MTI program Royal College of Physicians UK for International Doctors

  MTI (Mutual Training Initiative) is a program which is sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians UK (all three colleges), you can work in the UK for a period of up to two years.  It has the following requirements; 1. You should have MRCP part 1 passed (minimum requirement) 2. You must have got the required score in the IELTS or OET           a. For IELTS the required score is minimum 7.0 in all subcategories (reading, listening, writing and speaking) and an overall score of 7.5.           b. For OET the required score is grade B in all subcategories.  3. You must appear in an interview conducted by the Royal College of Physicians in your country and selected for the post OR you find a Job in the UK directly and inform Royal College of Physicians (London) that you have got the job by yourself and now you need RCP sponsorship for GMC registration.  You do not need to pass PLAB or MRCP (all parts) to get t...
Post a Comment
Read more.>>