Logo image
Positional therapy in ischemic stroke patients with obstructive sleep apnea
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Positional therapy in ischemic stroke patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Anna Svatikova, Ronald D Chervin, Jeffrey J Wing, Brisa N Sanchez, Erin M Migda and Devin L Brown
Sleep medicine, v 12(3), pp 262-266
2011
PMID: 21306949

Abstract

Sleep disorders Treatment Ischemic stroke Patient positioning Obstructive sleep apnea Cerebrovascular disease
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common in stroke patients and is associated with poor functional outcome. The effects of positional therapy in ischemic stroke patients with OSA have not been investigated. We tested the hypothesis that ischemic stroke patients have less severe OSA during positional therapy that promotes nonsupine positioning. We conducted a randomized, controlled, cross-over study. Sleep apnea screening studies were performed on two consecutive nights, using a portable respiratory monitoring system, on 18 subjects within the first 14 days of ischemic stroke. An apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) ⩾5 established the diagnosis of OSA. Subjects were randomized to positional therapy that included the use of a therapeutic pillow on either the first or second night. On the control night, subjects used the hospital pillow and were positioned ad lib. Treatment effect on AHI was estimated using a repeated measures model. All ischemic stroke subjects studied had OSA. The predominantly male group had a median age of 58 years, BMI of 29 kg/m 2, NIH Stroke Scale score of 3, and a median AHI on the nontherapeutic night of 39 (interquartile range: 21–54). Positional therapy reduced the amount of supine positioning by 36% (95% CI: 18–55% ( P < 0.001)). The AHI was reduced by 19.5% (95% CI: 4.9–31.9% ( P = 0.011)), when using positional therapy compared to sleeping ad lib. Positional therapy to avoid supine positioning modestly reduces sleep apnea severity after ischemic stroke, and may therefore improve outcomes.

Metrics

15 Record Views
61 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Clinical Neurology
Logo image