Usefulness of positional advice in SAHS treatment

Introduction: In many patients, SAHS has positional characteristics. Aims:a) to understand the impact of positional advice on sleep habits and severity of SAHS;b) to evaluate the reliability of patients subjective assessment of their usual sleeping position Methods: 65 patients diagnosed of positional SAHS and only on positional treatment. We collected retrospectively clinical features and results of sleep study (SS) and positional habits survey. We performed a SS after positional advice. Results: 65 patients, 54 men. Mean age 51.32, BMI 28.51. Epworth score before the advice was 8.08, 87.7% related snoring, apneas 64.6%, somnolence 24.6% and arousals 13.8% Table 1: SS before and after positional advice. A significant increase in time in lateral was observed, without impact on the AHI. 7 cases (10%) had AHI Table 2: patients divided into 2 groups according to a referred position in the initial SS. Patients who slept in supine >50% of the initial study, after advice had a higher time in lateral position with statistically significant improvement in overall AHI; not observed in who initially slept Table 3: results of the postural habits survey and sleep position measure in poligraphy Conclusions:1. Positional advice increases time in lateral position and reduces AHI in patients with predominantly supine sleeping. This improvement has a discrete impact on the severity of symptoms. 2. Subjective assessment of the position is not reliable.