Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome in Children - Status Quo of Diagnostics and Treatment

Background and Methods: In the diagnostics and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), established standards for adults cannot be conferred on children. To get an overview concerning the code of practice, we questioned sleep laboratories performing polysomnographies in children about the used techniques, the interpretation of the results and the recommended therapy of OSAS in children. Results: 17 sleep laboratories participated in the study. It became evident that the individual German sleep laboratories use different criteria in the diagnostics of OSAS in children. For treating OSAS in children, surgery by an ENT specialist is recommended in most cases (75%). Conclusions: To enhance national and international comparability of diagnostic findings, adoption of the recommendations of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) of 2007 for polysomnographic procedures and scoring is suggested.