Obstructive sleep apnea and traffic accidents.

In recent years many studies have shown that Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome is one of the biggest risk factors for drivers. The most severe patients report that they become sleepiness not only while driving on the highway or over long distances - during which the driver may stop the vehicle to sleep for a short time - but also during short distances around town. The interest raised by this problem has caused several studies to centre their objective on identifying the factors that are responsible for this increase in traffic accidents. Polysomnographic testing has verified that the sleep of these patients is fragmented which causes an excessive daily sleepiness and a sensation of tiredness and fatigue, which, up to a point can cause traffic accidents. Current work is revising some the studies which have been undertaken in order to evaluate the prevalence of traffic accidents in patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome according to the statistics. At present the nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure is the treatment of choice of this syndrome. For that reason and in relation to the problem that we are studying, the traffic accidents in patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome, we have recently revised some of the studies that have been undertaken to evaluate up to what point the therapy of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure diminishes the frequency of traffic accidents in patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome.