No abstract

Introduction: Obstructive sleep disordered breathing with snoring, breathing through the mouth, apnea during sleep is very common among children. Many of these children outgrow the condition as the symptoms are very mild and reduce with age. Enlargement of adenoids or tonsils can lead to tonsilolectomey and adenoidectomy, further leading to OSA. Materials and Methods: 46 obese or overweight children between the ages 3-15 years with suspected sleep apnea were subjected to vigorous physical and clinical examinations. Demographic details were noted apart from details such as sleep pattern, symptoms and snoring, daily routine, health history etc with reference to the Paediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ). All the children underwent polysomnography testing, Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), oxygen saturation, desaturation levels and sleep efficiency. Results: Out of the 46 children, 29 (59.2%) were boys and 17 (40.8%) were girls. The girls were older than the boys with their mean age being 8.6 in comparison to 5.9 of the boys. 31 patients were overweight and 15 were obese. Obstructive sleep apnea was observed in 18 (39.1%) patients with 9 patients each presenting with mild OSA and moderate to severe OSA. Central apnea was observed in 4 obese and 2 overweight children. AHI and desaturation levels were significantly higher among the OSA patients than in the normal range in the other patients. Conclusion: Though all snoring cases may not be OSA but most of the OSA cases are associated with snoring, it is therefore advisable that all the snoring children with other presentation of SDB be screened for OSA and central apnea.