Apnea often affects premature babies
Layne Melzer awoke around 8 hours to 6 months in January and looked at her son's six weeks old, Shane, beside him. Almost every morning, was the boy who was awakened at dawn with lusty yells for food, so Melzer surprised Shane still asleep. Then he took a closer look. Shane's skin was dark, and seemed not to breathe. Melzer shook him gently, but the child does not wake up. Its color was too dark. Bluish.
call screaming, his wife, to 911, Melzer Shane grabbed and shook him – hardthis time. The child opened his eyes at one point, but his eyes were empty.
resuscitation desperate attempt to remember, put the mouth of Shane Melzer and breathed twice. Then he shot the boy and slapped him on the back. He hit him again, and then a third time Suddenly Shane gulped for air and began to cry. A moment later, the rescue team.
The crisis, however, was far from over. Around noon, it was Shane Childrens Hospital approvedOrange County with a provisional diagnosis of severe apnea.
The word apnea comes from the Latin words and pneuma, which means without air. Medically, it refers to pauses in breathing.
The most important consequence of apnea is an injury to the brain and heart due to repeated periods of oxygen deficiency. A child with untreated sleep apnea may, in later years, learning and behavioral disorders, including cerebral palsy, associated with brain damage.
Shane MelzerThe problem was central apnea, exacerbated by a viral infection.
Shane breaths were frequent, long, responsible for repeated episodes of bradycardia – the medical term for an abnormally slow heart rate. He met all the criteria for the diagnosis of severe apnea. Two days after their admission CHOC, was transferred to the intensive care unit.
It has only worsened. At 3:30 in the morning after his transfer, Melzer was awakened by a calla medical unit. Shane apnea was so bad that now needs the help of a ventilator to survive, the doctor told them. But Shane was lucky to be in a hospital with expertise in the treatment of sleep apnea.
Shane apnea did not cause more problems. His breaths were never strong enough to activate the monitor to report his parents, and in all other respects, he is thriving.
If SIDS and sleep apnea related?
A studysuggests that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may be more common in families who suffer from sleep apnea in adults
Although the cause of SIDS remains a mystery, new supports the idea that the two diseases characterized by a small upper airway, which is formed out of the way the skull, is a trait that is inherited cause.
The study compared the number of SIDS cases in 29 families with sleep apnea and 35 families without sleep apnea.The researchers had families fill in questionnaires about the presence of infant death. Based on the data made available by four generations of each family, such as sleep apnea with 352 family members and 408 family members of control were covered.
Families tend to sleep apnea – breathing, in which for a short period during sleep and can cause snoring and sleep – eight unexplained infant deaths. The control families reported no unexplained, unexpected infant mortality,even if a small child is incompatible blood type parent-child had died. Two of the families reported more sleep as a SIDS death. In one case, a pair of twins had died without explanation. When the researchers, the structure of the face four of the six families studied reported SIDS death, found the forms differed significantly from normal families.
The results suggest that SIDS and sleep apnea are associated with adults and that both could beobstructive apnea due to shrinkage of the shape of the face upper respiratory tract.
Sleep apnea runs in families. Other studies have suggested that some families have a higher risk for SIDS is possible, even if, like many things SIDS, which remains controversial. This is a sensitive issue. The idea was that sleep apnea may be the final common pathway of SIDS, but not necessarily the case. The problem with SIDS research is that nobody has ever had a SIDS death was present.
In children, oftenappears tired or have trouble staying awake in school, obstructive apnea can be caused by unusually large polyps control or almonds.
Another study found that children considered at high risk for SIDS – those who had stopped breathing and found by accident and was revived – a greater likelihood of having a father with symptoms of sleep apnea, as it was. This could support the idea that sleep apnea is linked to SIDS. But how they are connected and if it is causallyanother question.
