Assessing Ventilatory Control in Infants at High Risk of Sleep Disordered Breathing: A Study of Infants with Cleft Lip and/or Palate

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in early infancy on ventilatory response in infants. We recruited consecutive infants with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) to undergo ventilatory response testing using exposure to a hypoxic (15% O(2) ) gas mixture during sleep. This population is at high risk of SDB because of smaller airway caliber and abnormal palatal muscle attachments predisposing them to airway obstruction of ranging severity from birth.