Ocular Implications in Patients with Sleep Apnea

Abstract

Sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) is a condition characterized by recurrent episodes of total or partial collapse of the upper respiratory tract associated with daytime drowsiness that cannot be explained by other factors. SAS is a pathology that can cause ophthalmological damage both directly through the pathophysiological mechanism characteristic of the disease on the ocular system, and indirectly by promoting the development of other pathologies (cardiovascular, metabolic), which are a risk factor for ocular morbidity in the absence of sleep apnea syndrome. The aim of this paper is to highlight the ocular symptoms determined by sleep apnea syndrome (SAS), by analyzing literature over the past 20 years. Method: A mini-review that collected data from Pub Med Central, ResearchGate, GoogleScholar, DovePress, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, related to the ocular implications given by sleep apnea syndrome, with or without continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. The study included articles that identified a number of eye conditions associated with sleep apnea, such as: dry eye syndrome and impaired ocular surface, glaucoma, non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, floppy eyelid syndrome, keratoconus, central serous chorioretinopathy, central vein occlusion, corneal neovascularization, and age-related macular degeneration. Sleep apnea syndrome is a pathology that can cause the onset or worsening of varying degrees of severity eye diseases by its pathophysiological mechanism, with a different impact on the quality of the individual’s life. On one hand, the purpose of this review is to identify studies in literature that associate sleep apnea syndrome with eye alterations; on the other hand, to inform the Romanian medical staff in different fields of the patients’ guidance diagnosed with SAS to an ophthalmology clinic since early and mild symptoms, so that these patients benefit from an ophthalmological approach and monitoring, in an attempt to diagnose and treat eye diseases in time and prevent their worsening.

Keywords

• eye diseases
• dry eye syndrome
• obstructive sleep apnea
• glaucoma
• ischemic optic neuropathy
• diabetic retinopathy