Earliest Cases of Sleep Apnea, A Brief History
Posted on | October 12, 2009 | No Comments
If you or your partner suffer from broken sleep caused by sleep apnea then it may be reassuring to know that you’re not alone. Far from it in fact; and although the term ’sleep apnea’ only dates back as far as 1965 (described at the same time by independent German and French medical experts), the condition has been recognised as a clinical condition long before then.
Interestingly in the early 20th century the condition was actually known as ‘Pickwickian syndrome‘ which came from a character in ‘The Pickwick Papers’ by Charles Dickens in which the character Joe (an overweight boy) had an accurate description of the broken sleep seen in clinical obtrusive sleep apnea.
The earliest reports to arrive in medical literature predictably described cases that were at the more extreme end of the spectrum and presenting with hypoxemia, heart failure and hypercapnia. In these instances tracheostomy was the most common treatment – an invasive procedure in which the trachea or windpipe is operated on in order to open a direct airway. This could however cause various complications and particularly in obese patients.
Fortunately today new systems are in place such as continuous positive airway pressure or ‘CPAP’ first introduced by Colin Sullivan in 1981, and many clinics exist dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of the condition.
Comments
Leave a Reply