Nocturnal apnea

Nocturnal apnea

    * Introduction
    * Etiology
    * Clinical
    * Treatment
If sleep phenomenon occurs more often stop breathing, speaking nocturia apnea, apnea that night (from gr. A-pnee = free air). Nocturnal apnea may be caused by an obstruction (narrowing) of the upper airway, a functional disorder of the respiratory muscles or other pathologies (eg heart failure). The main clue is the nocturnal apnea, snoring loudly, irregular. Sleep disorders including sleep apnea and nocturia, lead to concentration problems and fluctuating mood.
For mediation diagnosis are blood investigations, pulmonary function testing and sleep. Untreated, nocturnal apnea syndrome can lead to heart disease and pulmonary (eg right heart failure, pulmonary hipertenstiune).

In most cases help prove some general measures such as giving up alcohol (especially at night), sleep regular intervals, taking a lateral decubitus position during sleep, decreased greutarii the overweight body, surgical removal of polyps nasal pharyngeal tonsils respectively (if applicable). If these measures do not work, can be used in somului a breathing support device (in combination with a respiratory mask) that is designed to keep the airway open by exerting a little pressure, and thus acting against snoring.

 
Definition

The term comes from Greek night apnea (a-pnee = free air). Nocturnal apnea is a breathing disorder that is defined by two criteria: Respiratory pauses less than 10 seconds during sleep; More than 10 breathing pauses in an hour of sleep; Not counted in this case breaks respiratory phase and the phase REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep-paradoxical phase, sleep with dreams) because they occur quite often. It is considered that a maximum of five respiratory pauses per hour is within normal.

Prevalence

Men tend to have a three to six times greater than women to snoring, especially with age. Approximately 3% of the population suffers nocturnal apnea. For people over 40 years is estimated that 4% of men and 2% of women suffer from this disorder. 80% of those affected are overweight.