Evaluation of a new simple treatment for positional sleep apnoea patients.

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome is a common clinical problem. Positional sleep apnoea syndrome, defined as having a supine apnoea-hypopnoea index of twice or more compared to the apnoea-hypopnoea index in the other positions, occurs in 56% of obstructive sleep apnoea patients. A limited number of studies focus on decreasing the severity of sleep apnoea by influencing sleep position. In these studies an object was strapped to the back (tennis balls, squash balls, special vests), preventing patients from sleeping in the supine position. Frequently, this was not successful due to arousals while turning from one lateral position to the other, thereby disturbing sleep architecture and sleep quality. We developed a new neck-worn device which influences sleep position by offering a vibration when in supine position, without significantly reducing total sleep time. Thirty patients with positional sleep apnoea were included in this study. No side effects were reported. The mean apnoea-hypopnoea index dropped from 27.7 ± 2.4 to 12.8 ± 2.2. Seven patients developed an overall apnoea-hypopnoea index below 5 when using the device in ON modus. We expect that positional therapy with such a device can be applied as a single treatment in many patients with mild to moderate position-dependent obstructive sleep apnoea, while in patients with a more severe obstructive sleep apnoea such a device could be used in combination with other treatment modalities.

Quantitative effects of trunk and head position on the apnea hypopnea index in obstructive sleep apnea.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that head position, separately from trunk position, is an additionally important factor for the occurrence of apnea in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: St. Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred patients referred to our department because of clinically suspected OSA. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Patients underwent overnight polysomnography with 2 position sensors: one on the trunk, and one in the mid-forehead. Of the 300 subjects, 241 were diagnosed with OSA, based on an AHI > 5. Of these patients, 199 could be analyzed for position-dependent OSA based on head and trunk position sensors (AHI in supine position twice as high as AHI in non-supine positions): 41.2% of the cases were not position dependent, 52.3% were supine position dependent based on the trunk sensor, 6.5% were supine position dependent based on the head sensor alone. In 46.2% of the trunk supine position-dependent group, head position was of considerable influence on the AHI (AHI was > 5 higher when the head was also in supine position compared to when the head was turned to the side). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study confirm our hypothesis that the occurrence of OSA may also be dependent on the position of the head. Therefore in patients with a suspicion of position-dependent OSA, sleep recording with dual position sensors placed on both trunk and head should be considered.