Sleep apnea is a condition in which the sleeper’s air passages are blocked and he repeated stopped breathing for about 10 seconds or more, without realising it. Often it is the patient’s sleep partner who first notices this problem. Patients with serious sleep apnoea may stop breathing as frequently as once in a minute during the whole night.
There are two types of sleep apnea; obstructive sleep apnoea and central sleep apnoea. Nine out of ten patients are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea. We must understand first that what is sleep apnea.
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: OSA occurs when air cannot flow into and out of a person’s nose or mouth periodically during sleep. This causes a drop in oxygen level and the person may or may not be aroused from sleep to gasp for air. The severity of OSA is measured with regard to the number of stoppages of breathing in an hour at night while sleeping. Actual diagnosis of OSA involves a sleep study which can be conducted in the hospital or your home at your convenience. Contact some specialist for treating Obstructive sleep apnea.
Central Sleep Apnoea: Central Sleep Apnea occurs when the brain fails to send signals to the muscles used for breathing. Although it also causes a person to stop breathing repeatedly during sleep, it is due to a lack of respiratory effort, while OSA is caused by a collapse in the upper airway. This normally happens in patients with heart failure or conditions that affect the nervous system, brain cancer patients, or people with too much CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the body.
Central sleep apnea can happen alone or with obstructive sleep apnoea. Snoring doesn’t normally happen with central sleep apnoea.
Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (During the night)
- Choking sense at nighttime
- Gasping for air at nighttime
- Recurrent arousals from sleep
- Nocturia (frequent urination)
- Loud snoring
Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (During the day)
- Daytime drowsiness and tiredness
- Poor concentration
- Morning headaches
- Poor memory
- Irritability
- Mood changes
Obstructive sleep apnea may lead to serious heart attacks, increased blood pressure level, strokes, as well as sudden death during sleep.
Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Treatment of OSA can improve your physical and mental health and enhance your quality of life.
We offer the following services:
- Sleep study (hospital-based or home-based are available)
- Video nasoscopy
- Coblation stiffening of the palate
- Coblation reduction of the turbinate
- Coblation reduction of tonsils and tongue base
- Reshaping of palate
If you suspect something unusual, let our experienced ENT specialist Dr YT Pang do a detailed assessment. Once it is determined that it is sleep apnoea, treatment options that will work best for you will be discussed.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis of Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) requires clinical examination in addition to flexible naso-endoscopy. A non-invasive as well as painless sleep assessment is strongly recommended for OSA disorder.
Home based sleep study are now available putting the patient in his natural sleep environment. We have the WatchPAT sleep diagnostics and technician-assisted sleep test. Consult our senior specialist Dr YT Pang at CENTAS for an accurate assessment of your sleep problem.
