gms | German Medical Science

83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2012, Mainz

Quantitative Effects of Trunk and Head Position on the Apnea Hypopnea Index in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author Peter van Maanen - Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Ellen van Kesteren - Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Martin Laman - Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Ton Hilgevoord - Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Nico de Vries - Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 83. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Mainz, 16.-20.05.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12hnod703

doi: 10.3205/12hnod703, urn:nbn:de:0183-12hnod7039

Published: April 4, 2012

© 2012 van Maanen et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that head position, separately from trunk position, is an additionally important factor in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Patients: 300 patients referred to our department because of clinically suspected OSA.

Measurements and Results: Patients underwent overnight polysomnography with 2 position sensors: one on the trunk, and one in the mid-forehead. 241/300 Subjects were diagnosed with OSA. Of these patients, 199 could be analyzed for position-dependent OSA (AHIsupine > 2x AHI non-supine) based on head and trunk position sensors: 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 AHI (AHI was >5 higher when the head was also in supine position compared to when the head was turned sideways).

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.