Long-term treatment with continuous positive airway pressure improves quality of life in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome

Abstract

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is an established treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). While it is known that CPAP reverses the pathological breathing pattern and improves daytime sleepiness, there are no sufficient data on the long‐term influence of CPAP on quality of life in patients with OSAS. Thirty‐nine patients with polysomnographically verified OSAS (apnoea/hypopnoea index (AHI): (mean±sd) 46.8±21.8 events·h‐1) were prospectively studied. All patients answered three quality of life measures (Complaint List, Nottingham Health Profile Part 1 (NHP), and Verbal Analogue‐Scale “quality of life”) prior to the initiation of CPAP therapy. After a mean of 9 months they were re‐evaluated by polysomnography, and completed the questionnaires once again. As expected, CPAP was effective in treating the sleep‐related breathing disorder. AHI decreased significantly from (mean±sd) 46.8±21.8 events·h‐1 to 3.3±6.3 events·h‐1, and minimum oxygen saturation increased from 77.1±9.3% to 89.9±3.4%, while body mass index did not change significantly (31.3±5.4 versus 30.8±4.8 kg·m‐2). During long‐term treatment with CPAP the Complaint List revealed a significant improvement of the extent of subjective impairment due to physical and general complaints (26.4±9.9 versus 20.4±11.1), and NHP a significant improvement of emotional reactions (19.8±21.7 versus 11.1±14.0) and energy (50.8±36.6 versus 32.1±36.7), but not of pain, physical mobility, sleep, social isolation, and quality of life as assessed by the Verbal Analogue‐Scale. It is concluded that long‐term continuous positive airway pressure therapy is effective in improving not only pathological breathing patterns but also parameters that estimate quality of life in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome.

Driving ability in sleep apnoea patients before and after CPAP treatment: evaluation on a road safety platform

“…Treating patients who do not manifest subjective somnolence has been questioned [29]. There is strong evidence in the literature showing a cognitive benefit during CPAP treatment for OSAS patients [15,30], as well as an improvement in their quality of life [31], and a reduction in traffic accidents [2,3,16]. However, most of these data have been issued from clinical studies on patients with perceived sleepiness or loss of vigilance.…”

Effect of Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy on Health-related Quality of Life in Sleep Apnoea Patients Treated in the Routine Clinical Setting of a University Hospital

“…Although earlier controlled studies have shown that nCPAP treatment is efficacious in selected sleep apnoea patients, 11,17,29 the true effectiveness of this treatment under everyday conditions has so far remained largely unproven. The strength of the present study is that it provides data on the effectiveness and costs of normal routine hospital practice, when patients are treated under currently accepted indication criteria and guidelines within the ordinary routine of a large university hospital.…”

Treatment of sleep apnoea syndrome

“…Normalnim se smatra do 5 respiratornih događaja na sat spavanja (AHI 5). AHI 6-15 je blaga, 16-30 srednje teška, a preko 30 teška sleep apnea [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Sleep apnea sindrom dovodi do povećane dnevne pospanosti koja se kvantitativno najbolje izražava preko internacionalne Epfortove skale pospanosti (ESS) [10].…”

“…Analizom zapisa spavanja dobijaju se dragoceni podaci kojima opisujemo kvalitet spavanja, a sa osnovnim parametrima može-mo da procenimo postojanje sleep apnee [4 Lečenje pacijenata sa sleep apneom podrazumeva multidisciplinarni pristup. U svim slučajevima potrebno je sprovoditi adekvatan higijensko-dijetetski režim života, kao preduslov aktivne terapije.…”