SLEEP BREATHING ABNORMALITIES IN KYPHOSCOLIOSIS

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Abstract
Five patients with severe kyphoscoliosis were studied during sleep. A spectrum of breathing abnormalities was found ranging from no abnormalities to severe episodes of prolonged central apnea. Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep was the period of greatest physiologic disturbance in all patients, being the time of greatest O2 desaturation. Within this small group those with the most clinical evidence of chronic hypoxemia, polycythemia and cor pulmonale had the most severe derangements during sleep. Derangements in breathing pattern and arterial O2 saturation (SaO2) had no apparent relation to the degree of thoracic deformity, the results of pulmonary function tests, arterial PCO2 [CO2 partial pressure] or chemical drives to breathe.