SLEEP APNEA (SLEEP RESPIRATORY) AND SNORING DISEASE
Sleep Apnea (respiratory arrest during sleep) is a disease that all Ear, Nose and Throat physicians have been focusing on since 1985.
From the tip of the nose to the vocal cords, all kinds of obstacles blocking the respiratory tract cause respiratory arrest and snoring during sleep. Let me point out here that not every snoring patient has sleep apnea, but every sleep apnea patient snores. The cessation of breathing air entering the mouth and nose for 10 seconds is called apnea, and more than 5 apnea attacks during a normal night’s sleep are called sleep apnea. The area where the root of the tongue and soft palate and the uvula merge with the nasal cavity spontaneously
It is a shrinking region. When these structural strictures overlap each other, they vibrate with respiration and snoring occurs. Complaints in children; adenoids and enlarged tonsils. In adults; It causes the soft palate muscles to weaken, reduce tension and relax. There are three types of the disease as Central (Cerebral cause), Occlusive (Nose, nasal, intraoral, and throat cause) and Mixed (Central and obstructive cause mixed).
What we will focus on is the subject of obstructive sleep apnea disease (sleep apnea). The disease causes a slight snoring, heart and lung disorders, and even death due to respiratory arrest while sleeping in bed. At least 45% of adults snore from time to time. This complaint is persistent in 25% of cases. The problem of snoring usually occurs in adults who have recently gained weight and becomes more common with age.
increases day by day. It can pose a serious problem affecting family life. If you are a person who snores and in the meantime, your breathing stops for minutes in your sleep, it means that you are used to the warnings of being woken up by your partner at night and changing the way you lie down. The person who snores becomes a laughing stock. He is held responsible for his sleepless nights for other members of the family. The person who snores becomes an unwanted roommate on vacation and business trips. The damage caused by respiratory arrest during sleep is great. There are nights spent without rest. High blood pressure is more common in people who snore excessively than in people who don’t snore. The most severe form of snoring is the “occlusive type” snoring disease.
During sleep of these patients, the oxygen level in their blood drops excessively due to the cessation of their breathing. During this period of low oxygen, the heart is forced to pump more blood. After a while, the heart rhythm deteriorates, and over the years, high blood pressure, heart enlargement and lung problems settle. People with obstructive snoring disease can enter the deep sleep phase in a very small part of their sleep. They never get a comfortable deep sleep. He often turns over in his bed at night, gets up to urinate frequently, so that the daytime spent without rest is sleepy, tired, tense and unproductive. Due to the lack of sleep at night, they will fall asleep while sitting or doing work during the day, and young children will fail in their studies and become irritable. Most importantly, according to the characteristics of the workplaces and living conditions; Those who live alone, those who drive, those who work in the industry, will result in accidents and deaths due to lack of attention and concentration. Suggestions to be made to people who snore are generally as follows;
1. Losing weight under the supervision of a physician
2. Doing sports to increase muscle tone
3. Allergy drugs called sleeping pills, tranquilizers and antihistamines before sleep
should not take.
4. Should not drink alcohol 4 hours before sleep or even at all.
5. Avoid heavy meals 3 hours before sleep.
6. Avoid excessive fatigue.
7. It should be preferred to lie on the side during sleep.
8. By raising the head of the entire bed, making the person lie with his head up inclined
9. Waiting for people who do not snore at home to fall asleep before you
Give them time to fall asleep first.
Definitive diagnosis and type determination of the disease are made in sleep laboratories with polysomnography examination. In polysomnography, the person with the disorder is put to sleep for one night in a specially prepared quiet room in the sleep laboratory. The recordings obtained from the electrodes placed on the body are evaluated. Thus, the number of sleep apnea achieved in a normal night’s sleep;
0 to 5 mild
5 to 15 medium
Between 15 and 25 and above are considered severe sleep apnea.
To this day, hundreds of companies have developed devices against snoring and snoring during sleep. Some suggested that patients attach tennis balls to their pajamas to ensure that they do not sleep on their back (snoring increases more when lying on their back). Some have suggested chin, neck straps, lanyards, and intraoral devices, but to no benefit. Electronic devices have been found that work with the sound of snoring and wake the patient. All these were considered as the patient’s practice of sleeping without snoring. Unfortunately, snoring is a problem that is not under the control of the person, and all these devices are only intended to keep the patient to sleep.
Today, in appropriate cases, devices called SPAP or BIPAP, which are used in line with the information obtained as a result of the polysomnographic examination and which give positive air pressure by being attached to the outside of the nose with a mask, are used successfully.
In surgical treatment, as we have mentioned above, it is a condition that causes obstruction from the tip of the nose to the vocal cords.
(nasal, intraoral and throat sections) anatomical structures are cleaned.
For this purpose, various surgical methods are applied, these approaches are evaluated by the physician who will perform the surgery and positive results are obtained.
As a result, my suggestion is that it would be appropriate to talk to your specialist doctor before snoring and apnea attacks become a problem for the person and his family.
Prof.Dr.Selcuk Onart
