Sleep‐disordered breathing in spinal cord‐injured patients: A short‐term longitudinal study

Abstract

We have demonstrated a high incidence of sleep apnoea in the acute phase of SCI that persisted during the acute admission. Despite the high incidence of sleep apnoea, patients were relatively asymptomatic. Screening of this population would appear worthwhile given the high prevalence, although the significance of the sleep apnoea and clinical impact is not known.

Neuropsychological Function in Patients With Acute Tetraplegia and Sleep Disordered Breathing

“…4,8 In chronic tetraplegia, sleep onset hypoventilation, 9 obstructive, 7 and central apneas 7 have all been reported, 10 while in acute tetraplegia, obstructive and mixed events appear to predominate. 3,11,12 Reports, however, in both the acute and chronic, vary in methodology, scoring criteria, and participant characteristics, such that a clear pattern of the nature of SDB remains controversial.…”

Sleep apnea and periodic leg movements in the first year after spinal cord injury

“…Moreover, considering that we analyzed patients within 10 months from the trauma (with 75% of patients enrolled in the first 2 months), SDB seems to develop early in a significant proportion of patients. Only two recent studies assessed the presence of SDB in the first year after SCI [9,11]. In particular, Berlowitz et al [9] examined sleep breathing of SCI patients longitudinally during the first year post injury and found a prevalence of SDB of 60% at four weeks from injury that peaked at 83% at 13 weeks.…”

“…Only one of our patients showed nocturnal hypercapnia suggesting the presence of a sleep hypoventilation. Sleep hypoventilation is described in SCI patients and seems to be favored by the depressant effect of drugs, intercostal and abdominal muscle weakness and blunted ventilatory drive, especially in tetraplegic patients during REM sleep [11,30].…”

“…Different studies have shown an increased incidence of SDB in people with SCI [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Indeed, despite differences in methodology and patient selection (low representation of women and paraplegic patients), the medical literature indicates a prevalence of SDB in patients with SCI that is at least twice the reported prevalence in the general population [7,8,10].…”

“…However, the pathogenic mechanisms that cause SDB in SCI patients are still unclear. In particular, there are no data about the onset time of SDB because the majority of these studies have been conducted several years after injury [5][6][7][8]10], whereas only two recent studies investigated the SDB during the acute phase of SCI [9,11].…”