Sleep apnea syndrome

Sleep apnea syndrome is a breathing disorder that manifests during sleep and is characterized by intermittent episodes of total or partial obstruction of the upper airway.

These obstructions cause breathing pausesduring sleep from which the subject awakens with an effort, snoring, mouth breathing, profuse night sweats, nocturia (i.e. getting up to urinate 2 or more times during the night), excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue and memory and/or concentration problems.

• In adults, it can also be accompanied by erectile dysfunction. It usually appears in obese subjects or with morphological alterations of the oropharynx or craniofacial (e.g., small mandible) and the disorder is reversible with the use of continuous pressure (CPAP), with mandibular advancement techniques (oral or surgical device) or with conservative measures (weight loss).

• In children, it is usually related to tonsillar and adenoid hypertrophy (“vegetations”) and treatment consists of surgical removal. When affecting children, this disorder presents with poor growth, recurrent otitis and, instead of drowsiness, the most common daytime symptom is the appearance of attention deficit and paradoxical hyperactivity.