[Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome and traffic accidents]

For many years traffic accidents represent an important concern in the world and was proven that excessive sleepiness, decreased vigilance of falling asleep in traffic are involved in many car accidents.

To asses the correlation between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome severity, the length of nocturnal arterial oxygen desaturation period and the patients' answers to the Epworth Sleepiness Scale Questionnaire (ESS) and Berlin Questionnaire (BQ).

We used the records of patients admitted in Iaşi Pneumology Clinical Hospital with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome between 2007-2008, including only those patients which drive the car daily and excluding those patients with comorbidities which could increase the nocturnal arterial oxygen desaturation. The study group (33 patients) have been assessed through polysomnography and some specific questions from ESS and BQ. We identified those patients involved in traffic accidents due to sleepiness. The correlation between obstructive sleep apnea syndrome severity (reflected by Apnea-Hipopnea Index--AHI), the length of the nocturnal arterial oxygen desaturation period (< 90%) and the answers the answers to ESS and BQ were assessed.

Two patients presented mild severity sleep apnea syndrome, 15 presented moderate severity and 16 high severity sleep apnea syndrome. The correlation of AHI with ESS (r = 0.59, p < 0.001) and BQ (r = 0.47, p < 0.05) were significant while the correlation with nocturnal arterial oxygen desaturation period had no significance (r = 0.29, p < 0.05).

Patients with moderate or severe OSA present a high degree of diurnal sleepiness which could affect the driving capacity.