MADRID, 12 (EUROPA PRESS)
Patients with sleep apnea no treaties consume two-thirds more health resources than those diagnosed, as explained the neumóloga and member of the Spanish society of Pneumology and thoracic surgery (SEPAR) and the Spanish society of sleep (SES), Dr. Araceli Abbot. Specialists have presented the preliminary results of the study NANOS on the occasion of the world sleep day, held on March 16.
“More beneficial and effective” treatment is currently the CPAP, which consists of a mask connected to the electrical current that delivers oxygen to the patient during the hours of sleep. For the expert, this technique makes that patients “die less”. Currently, these “multiplied by 6 its mortality” in relation to those who suffer no pathology or who have it but if they are properly treated, says.
Its function is to help breathe to the sick, that it has “between 200 and 300 collapses of upper airway” in their most serious cases, says the neurologist and member of SES and of the Spanish Neurology Society (SEN), Dr. Montserrat Pujol. For this reason, it is important that individuals are diagnosed and, for this, “the support of the couple is fundamental”, says Dr Abbé.
In addition, the CPAP prevents that the sick suffer strokes, which “are the leading cause of disability” and, therefore, a source of expenditure for the State, maintains Pujol. According to surveys collected by the neurologist, the risk of stroke “is reduced to 6.7 per cent” if it is the patient.
Affects between 1,250,000 and 2,250,000 people in Spain
Addition, this disease is “very often, because it affects between 4 and 6 percent of men, and between 2 and 4 percent of women”, confirms Abbot. This means that “between 1,250,000 and 2,250,000 people suffer in Spain sleep apnea”, says.
Its symptomatology responds to “snoring, neuropsychiatric disorders, drowsiness or fatigue”, explain the experts. However, the main problem are “cerebrovascular complications and long-term cardiovascular”, regrets the Chairman of SES, Dr. Diego GarcÃa Borreguero.
In this sense, Pujol stressed that “there is a direct link between these diseases and the sleep apnea”. In his view, “is give 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, rising to 650 patients when they met the 50 years”. So while van that the expert says that “63 percent of people with cerebrovascular problems suffer more than 10 sleep apneas” during their daily rest.
The most striking cases are hypertensive, since “30 percent has also breathing stops during the night,” said Abbot. As for obese people, the figure is slightly lower (27%), but no less worrying for specialists.
These recent patients face one greater risk, “have between 2 and 6 times more chance of dying,” he estimated. Stroke as stroke or embolism accidents “occur in the majority of cases during the Awakening”, specifically in 31 percent of the time.
The treatment for the children is the surgery
addition, obstructions in the pharynx and the breathing difficulties also affect children in a similar way. The only differences are that children “suffer from neurological disorders and hyperactivity or attention-deficit”, describes the neumóloga and member of SES, Dr. Maria Luz Alonso and SEPAR.
To its judgment, the prevalence in this segment of the society is “between 2 and 4 per cent”, affecting 196,000 children each year. However, although the characteristic profile is a thin teenager and small stature, obese children are who experience more, that “both pathologies enhance each other”, he warns. The NANOS study, led by this expert, “40 percent of these children suffer from sleep apnea”.
As regards treatment, children reverse the apnea with surgical treatment rather than with CPAP. The technique used is simply to “withdraw the vegetations and the young patient tonsils”, indicates. The success rate “reaches between 70 and 80 percent”, statement.
Finally, GarcÃa Borreguero has wanted stress that sleep apnea “is easily detectable disease and preventable”, for which demand “that people is account that continuous snoring and daytime sleep disorders are symptoms” of the disease. In this sense, Abbot complains that “only are diagnosed between 5 and 9 by hundreds of patients.” “It is a pending account,” it concludes.
