Mild obstructive sleep apnea: beyond the AHI

Abstract

No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A common conundrum faced by sleep medicine practitioners is how to manage the large group of patients with mild sleep apnea. Many patients are referred for sleep evaluation, with symptoms thought to be due to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Often polysomnography demonstrates only mild sleep apnea, and the clinician and patient are faced with the dilemma of whether to use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy or an oral appliance. In making this important decision the clinician incorporates the commonly used definition of mild sleep apnea as an apnea-hypopnea index of between 5 and 14 apneas or hypopneas per hour of sleep. Moderate sleep apnea is defined as 15-29 events per hour, and severe is 30 and above events per hour. These arbitrary thresholds originated in the early 1980s when knowledge of this condition was in its infancy and little was known about the long term health effects. The definition ...

Keywords

• obstructive sleep apnea
• mild
• mild obstructive sleep apnea
• apnea-hypopnea index
• AHI
• outcomes
• APPLES
• neurocognition
• cognition
• sleepiness
• depression
• mood
• quality of life