Complex sleep apnea phenomenon
Newly discovered phenomenon called complex sleep apnea.
The newly discovered complex sleep apnea, is a combination of both obstructive and central sleep apneas.
Western men with a neck circumference greater than 16.929 inches were shown to have a high incidence of sleep apnea and these results may apply to Asian patients.
Patients with complex sleep apnea at first appear to have obstructive sleep apnea and stop breathing 20 to 30 times per hour each night.
But unlike typical obstructive sleep apnea patients, their breathing problem is not completely alleviated by a CPAP machine, which forces air into the patient’s airway.
Instead, once the CPAP is applied to complex sleep apnea patients, the obstruction seems to dissipate, but still they do not breathe properly.
Symptoms of central sleep apnea then appear and fragmented sleep results, due to frequent pauses in breathing.
Sleep labs have observed for years that there are patients who appear to have obstructive sleep apnea, but the CPAP doesn’t make them much better,
they still have moderate to severe sleep apnea even with our best treatment and subjectively don’t feel they’re doing very well,
A Mayo Clinic sleep medicine specialist, pulmonologist and lead study investigator reported.
When they put on a CPAP machine, they start to look like central sleep apnea syndrome patients.
This phenomenon has been observed for years, but this study is the first attempt to categorize these people.