Abstract
We report a 38-year-old man with obstructive sleep apnea whose sleep-disordered breathing was substantially reduced by sleep in the supine, “knees-up” position, relative to his sleep in the customary supine, “knees-down” position. No obvious anatomic or pathophysiologic alterations explained this phenomenon. The effect was reproducible in the patient 4 years later. Potential mechanisms underlying such improvement, including alterations in upper airway/lung volume dependence and venous supply to upper airway vasculature, are discussed. This manipulation could be an important adjunctive treatment for a subset of obstructive sleep apnea patients demonstrating such an effect.
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Bliwise, D.L., Irbe, D. & Schulman, D.A. Improvement in Obstructive Sleep Apnea in the Supine “Knees-Up” Position. Sleep Breath 8, 43–47 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-004-0043-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-004-0043-1