Polysomnographic and clinical characteristics of positional obstructive sleep apnea patients

Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition characterized by the complete or partial obstruction of the upper airway during sleep. This study aimed to compare the clinical and polysomnographic characteristics of our obstructive sleep apnea patients according to their positional and non-positional features. Two hundred eighty patients were included in the study. One hundred two patients (36.43%) were female, while 178 patients (63.57%) were male. While 88 (31.43%) of these patients were defined as positional patients, 192 (68.57%) were defined as non-positional patients. The mean age of the positional patients (46.78 ± 9.66) was lower than the mean age of the non-positional patients (50.90 ± 10.96) (p 0.001). Similarly, the mean body mass index of the positional patients (29.39 ± 3.80) was lower than the mean body mass index of the non-positional patients (33.30 ± 6.45) (p < 0.001). Neck circumference values of the positional patients (40.36 ± 2.65) were lower compared to the non-positional patients (43.32 ± 2.54) (p < 0.001). Sleep values were compared based on the presence of positional sleep apnea. In the positional patients, sleep duration, sleep efficiency (percentage), duration of stage N3, minimum, and mean saturation values were found to be higher compared to the non-positional patients, while nightlong apnea hypopnea index, apnea index, percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation below 90%, oxygen desaturation index, mean heart rate, and periodic limb movement index values were found to be lower (p < 0.05). The rate of severe sleep apnea (7.95%) in the positional patients was lower than the non-positional patients (53.65%) (p < 0.001). In the light of these data, positional OSA is a very important condition presented in 31.43% of OSA patients and it was determined that these patients were younger, had less body mass index, and shorter neck circumference. The rate of severe disease was found to be lower in positional OSA patients