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Published in the December 2004 issue of Hong Kong
Medical Journal, doctors from the Departments of Paediatrics and
Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital have reviewed on epidemiology,
complications, diagnosis, and treatment of childhood obstructive
sleep apnoea (OSA).
The review stated that although there is no standard
definition of childhood OSA, local studies showed that snoring is
the most common night-time symptom of this disease. Nevertheless,
some doctors doubted that apnoeas or features of childhood OSA may
not be easily seen during the night, because it tends to occur mainly
in rapid eye movement sleep, which accounts for only a short period
of one's total sleep.
Adenotonsillar hypertrophy and obesity are important
factors for the disease, resulting in neurocognitve and cardiovascular
abnormalities and growth failure, as shown in this review. Overnight
polysomnography remains the gold standard for diagnosing OSA, but
the diagnostic criteria has not been standardised nor correlated
with the long-term outcome. Concerning treatment of childhood OSA,
surgical intervention remains the treatment of choice, though alternative
therapies are being evaluated.
It was concluded that further advances can only
be made with international collaborative research, using evidence-based
definition, standardised techniques, and polysomnographic criteria.
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