SLEEP-APNEA IN INTENSIVE-CARE

The aim of this work was to study the existence of special characteris tics in the sleep apnoea syndrome (SAS) discovered following a stay on the Intensive Care Unit. This retrospective study 25 casenotes of SAS patients who were resuscitated has enabled a comparison with 182 SAS patients who have never had acute respiratory failure. The intensive c are consisted of controlled ventilation, following intubation, in a cl inical context of acute respiratory failure with major problems of con scious level. The diagnosis of SAS was made using conventional or comp uterised polysomnography, or a computerised study of transcutaneous Sa O2 (SaO2 TC) which had been validated before. The results show that pa tients with SAS in an Intensive Care Unit, differs significantly from other patients with SAS by the permanent presence of alveolar hypovent ilation in a stable state, associated with a significant decrease in t he FEV1 (VEMS) in relation to the group that had not been in intensive care. However, the FEV1/VC ratio did not differ between the two group s which were expressed in absolute values or as a percentage of the th eoretical value defined on the basis of their age. There was no differ ence on the data from the sleep studies and notably the hypoapnoeic in dices, nor on age, the index of body mass or the sex ratio. We conclud e that there is a need to look for SAS in the presence of acute respir atory failure in the obese without a recognised cause.