[Snoring and sleep apnea syndrome in the elderly]

Abstract

After shorts general considerations about physiologic and epidemiologic features relative to sleep, snoring and apneas in elderly, authors bring analysis of 30 snorers over sixty years. They all had a sleep recording, a ENT examination, and a pharyngeal C.T. scan. The main results are following: the high frequency of Sleep Apnea Syndrome (SAS) over 60 is to be carefully considered. So, Sleep recording appears necessary in the main part of this population. Cardiovascular, pneumologic and neurologic disease are very often associated, and do constitute elements of therapeutic choice. Velopharyngeal narrowing, without other level of superior airway closure, is the usual case. Therapeutic management is often difficult; there is a choice, in apneic patients, between Uvulo-Palato-Pharyngoplasty (UPP), sometimes impossible because of associated pathology, and nocturnal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), which employment is not always easy.