Upper Airway Evaluation in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea

• Main Authors: Seung-No Hong, Tae-Bin Won, Jeong-Whun Kim, Chul Hee Lee, Chae-Seo Rhee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Sleep Medicine 2016-06-01
• Series: Sleep Medicine Research
• Subjects: Obstructive sleep apnea; Airway obstruction; Diagnosis
• Online Access: http://www.sleepmedres.org/upload/pdf/smr-7-1-1.pdf

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a widespread disease of substantial social burden. As various surgical procedures are now developed to alter the offending anatomic abnormalities, identification of the exact problematic site with application of the most appropriate treatment including surgical procedure is essential for effective surgical treatment of OSA. To date, many techniques are available for the physician to assess and analyze the upper airway obstruction including radiographic cephalometry, sleep video fluoroscopy, computed tomography imaging, sleep magnetic resonance imaging, drug induced sleep endoscopy, multi-channel pressure measurements, acoustic reflectometry, and basic physical examinations. However there are still some controversies concerning the effectiveness and morbidity of each technique. Therefore, sleep medicine doctors should understand the characteristics of each tool with the pathophysiology of OSA. Herein, we review the clinical methods to evaluate the upper airway in terms of disease severity and treatment selection.