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Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Role of an Otorhinolaryngologist

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Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder resulting from collapse of the upper airway during sleep. Its etiology is multifactorial, resulting from the interdependence of structurally vulnerable upper airway anatomy interacting with physiologic mechanism of ventilator instability during sleep. The ENT causes for OSA are relatively simple conditions that can be treated by safe and simple medical and/or surgical procedures. To assess the prevalence of ENT disorders in patients presenting to the sleep clinic. Patients presented to sleep clinic were submitted to an assessment protocol including clinical history, otorhinolaryngology examination and a polysomnography. Total 69 patients were included and distributed into two groups according to AHI: patients with sleep disordered breathing only (simple snorer and/or AHI ≤ 5) and patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (AHI > 5). There was significant statistical difference for deviated nasal septum (p = 0.0004) and inferior turbinate hypertrophy (p = 0.03) in both groups. Most patients were in the class III and IV of Mallampati classification. Odds of having OSA increases more than 1.5 folds as the level of Mallampati classification increases by one class. ENT disorders were more common in the patients with OSA than in simple snorers and have impact on pathophysiology of OSA and its treatment modality. Hence, ENT examination in all patients with sleep disordered breathing will be helpful.

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Correspondence to Jinesh Atulkumar Shah.

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All the authors declare no conflict of interest whatsoever.

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All the procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standard of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Shah, J.A., George, A., Chauhan, N. et al. Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Role of an Otorhinolaryngologist. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 68, 71–74 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-015-0922-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-015-0922-8

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