Abstract
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the usefulness of polysomnography for a diagnosis of pediatric sleep disorder and the efficacy of treatment by adenotonsillectomy or continuous positive airway pressure with a nasal mask (nasal CPAP).Forty one children were enrolled in this study. Their chief complaints involved snoring and apnea during sleep.All of them underwent the nocturnal polysomnography in the hospital.For the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, we used two indices, apnea hypopnea index (AHI) and a total of time during which O2 saturation falls below 95% by pulse oximetry (<95% desaturation time).Thirty six subjects were diagnosed adenotonsillar hypertrophy and 13 subjects had adenotonsillectomy.Twenty one subjects were kept under observation without surgical treatment.Four subjects were obese.Two of them were diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and were treated with nasal CPAP.It is demonstrated that both the surgical intervention and nCPAP vastly improved clinical manifestations and the result of nocturnal polysomnography also revealed the efficacy of these interventions.
