Tiredness and Somnolence Despite Initial Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (What to Do When an OSAS Patient Stays Hypersomnolent Despite Treatment)

From a database of 4,129 patients with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), we found 207 subjects (43 women) that still complained of daytime tiredness, fatigue, and/or sleepiness despite treatment. In 25 subjects the sleepiness developed 1 to 36 months following treatment and was related to noncompliance (8 subjects), significant weight increase and/or inappropriate treatment (10 subjects), or development of new medical problems (7 subjects). In the remaining 182 subjects, sleepiness was noted within 1 month after what was judged appropriate treatment for SDB. In this group, the reason for persistent complaint was divided into four categories: 1) inappropriate treatment as a result of not using the measurement of esophageal pressure (Pes) in the initial diagnosis (41 subjects), 2) nonfunctional treatment (3 subjects), 3) associated narcolepsy-like syndrome (2 subjects), and 4) emergence of obesity and/or periodic leg movements as significant factors (135 subjects). The 135 subjects in this last category could be subdivided into three subgroups: 1) younger subjects, severely overweight with lower mean nocturnal saturated arterial oxygen (SaO2) values; 2) older subjects, of normal weight, with high numbers of periodic leg movements (PLM); and 3) moderately overweight subjects, with a combination of PLM and lower mean SaO2 values than expected. Treatments were aimed at eliminating the identified problems; they included standard medications for PLM and nasal bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) for low SaO2 measurements. These treatments were not effective in specific cases, and stimulant medications had to be prescribed.