Impact of Supplemental Oxygen on Obstructive Sleep Apnea of Infants

Treatment options may be limited for infants with obstructive sleep apnea when there is no surgically correctable upper airway lesion. We therefore evaluated, retrospectively, the efficacy of low-flow oxygen as a therapeutic option for infant obstructive sleep apnea. We reviewed the medical charts of 23 infants who had undergone a therapeutic trial of low-flow oxygen during polysomnography. Split-night polysomnography was used in 21/23 subjects while 2/23 had undergone two separate, full-night polysomnography sleep architecture and respiratory findings on the baseline polysomnogram segment that was obtained in room air were compared with the segment on low-flow oxygen (0.25-1 L/min). Wilcoxon signed rank or McNemar's test were used as indicated for comparing apnea hypopnea index and measures of sleep architecture at baseline and with oxygen therapy. The mean (±SD) age of subjects was 4.8 (±2.7) months, with 52% being males. The median apnea hypopnea index fell from a baseline of 18 (range 7-43) to 3 (range 1-19; p = 0.001) on oxygen. The baseline median obstructive/mixed apnea index decreased from 2 (range 1-16) to 1 during oxygen therapy (range 0-1; p = 0.003). Additionally, a significant decrease in central apnea index (median interquartile range (IQR) 1 (0-2) vs. 0 (0-1), p = 0.002) was noted. Sleep efficiency remained unaffected, while O₂ saturation (SaO₂) average and SaO₂ nadir improved on oxygen. We were able to confirm the utility of low-flow oxygen in reducing central, obstructive, and mixed apneas and improving average oxygen saturation in infants with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).