Overview
Sleep apnea is a condition with having difficulty in breathing during sleep. Patients or their partners / families / friends can complain about not only snoring, stop/low-breathing during sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness; but also about feeling tired/exhausted, waking up frequently at night, disruptions in brain functions, mood changes, morning headaches, night sweats, sexual dysfunction, nocturia or waking up feeling short of breath or choking. Risk factors can be listed as obesity, anatomical problems related to nose/mandibula/hard pallate/tonsils/adenoids/ tongue leading to narrowing of upper airways. Untreated sleep apnea can result in hypertension, arrhytmia, heart attack, difficulty in management of DM, accidents, social and economical problems, depression, etc. It can be diagnosed with overnight sleep study. Patient can be referred to a ENT physician or dentist for management of anatomical abnormalities. However if patient has moderate-severe asthma, gold standard management strategy is treatment with positiye airway pressure (CPAP, BIPAP, APAP etc). The prescription of this management is based on the second night PAP titration sleep study. Patients can be followed up remotely by telemedicine strategies provided by the PAP provider companies (such as RESMED, Lowenstein).