Twenty per cent of road accidents are caused by underlying sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder, according to the Road Accident Survey
The disorder affects 20 per cent of women and 35 per cent of men. Men have higher incidence, the study revealed. Four per cent of adults are suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
There is a correlation of high BMI and OSA risk. Some common symptoms of Sleep Apnea are daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, and restless sleep.
Dr Kalpana Nagpal, senior consultant ENT, head, neck and robotic surgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital said that robotic surgeries have given a new and easy way out to the sleep apnea patients.
Doctor highlights that now there is no need to ignore snoring or sleep apnea. As per the Dr Nagpal, Robotic Surgery is becoming increasingly popular among the surgical specialities and most of the institutions have or are investing in it. It has numerous benefits over the conventional methods like fast recovery, low infections, almost painless, almost no scar, low blood loss, great cosmetic results and better post-operative immune function.
“The OSA or snoring is a dangerous disorder and most of us laugh it off or ignore or learn to live with it”, said Dr Nagpal.
She further explains that this condition arises when a person constantly stops breathing while sleeping due to the collapse in his/her airway. It isn’t clear why a person develops OSA, but triggers for the same are many ranging from weight gain, alcohol, sedative use, decreased muscle tone or the physical makeup of the person’s airway.
If the condition is left undiagnosed/untreated or ignored for a longer span, the OSA can affect a person in many ways like the decreased quality of life, diabetes, impotence, high blood pressure, fatigue, stroke or cardiac arrest, memory disturbances etc.
