Follow-up of obstructive sleep apnea in children

INTRODUCTION: the evolution of snoring and OSAS in children is not well established since few studies of patients without surgical treatment have been published. OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the evolution of sleep disordered breathing in children who had not been submitted to upper airway surgery. METHOD: twenty-six children with snoring who had not undergone upper airway surgery were evaluated prospectively. Patients were evaluated by full physical examination and nocturnal polysomnography, after which they were divided into 2 groups: apnea (16 children) and snoring (10 children). After 6 months following the initial evaluation, patients were submitted to a new nocturnal polysomnography, and all data were compared to those of the first examination. RESULTS: the groups did not show any differences regarding age, weight, height and airway physical examination. After 6 months of follow-up, the apnea index did not change, but the respiratory disturbance index increased in the snoring group and the number of hypopneas decreased in the group apnea. CONCLUSION: there was an increase in the percentage of N1 sleep stage and the respiratory disturbance index in the patients with primary snore. The AHI did not show significant alteration in both groups, but the number of hypopneas decreased in patients with SAOS.