How Efficient is CPAP In Terms Of Treating Childhood Sleep Apnea?

How Good is CPAP In Terms Of The Treatment Of Childhood Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is an extremely common sleep problem which currently affects some 18,000,000 people in America alone. This figure is approximately 1 in 15 or 6.62% of the population which does not take into account an additional 2% to 4% of the population who are thought to be suffering from the condition but who are as yet undiagnosed.

However, what many people do not know is that there are also an amazingly large and growing number of children who are suffering from sleep apnea, with estimates showing that in the region of 2% of all children are suffering from obstructive sleep apnea.

When it comes to children sleep apnea merits especially close attention as at this critical stage of growth and development apnea can result in memory, IQ and learning problems.

In a significant number of cases obstructive sleep apnea results in no small measure from overweight and the first stage in the treatment of the problem is thus to shed some weight. This however might not be as simple as it sounds and does not always ease the problem enough.

The next stage for many children is the use of an oral appliance when sleeping. Oral appliances have to be custom made and fitted by a qualified orthodontist and are made to hold the lower jaw in a position that makes sure that the throat is kept open during sleep. Improvement is once again not always satisfactory with an oral appliance and many children are far from happy wearing them.

The best choice when it comes to the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea is the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine which produces a steady stream of air by way of a mask that is worn during sleep sleeping and which maintains an open airway.

CPAP machines are extremely successful but, as with any treatment, they will only produce good results if they are used correctly and this is where we come up against a particular problem with children.

In a recent study a group of children having CPAP treatment were followed over a six month period to see how closely they followed the medical advice they were given for the use of their CPAP machines. The children were subjected to sleep studies at the start and end of the evaluation period and they and their parents were questioned closely by the researchers about their use of the machines. In addition, the machines that were used for the study were all fitted with meters that recorded the use of the machines.

The study found that over seventy-five percent of the children did not use their machines every night and that even those children who used their machines consistently were using the machines for only about 5 hours a night which was not sufficient to gain the full benefit from their use. Perhaps most importantly, taking into account the fact that a lot of the children being evaluated were very young and therefore required supervision to ensure the correct use of their machines, the study showed that the overwhelming majority of parents overestimated the use of the system by in the region of two hours each night.

At this stage, although it is clear that children are not receiving the full benefit of CPAP treatment, it is unclear just why they are failing to use the system correctly and further studies are being conducted to see what improvements can be made for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in children.

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