[Obstructive snoring--diagnosis and therapy]

Obstructive snoring belongs to the sleep-related breathing disorders. The characteristics of this disorder is described, following the case report about two young snorers, complaining of excessive day-time sleepiness, involuntary falling asleep in monotoneous situations. Ambulatory monitoring using the four-channel system MESAM-IV showed a Respiratory Disturbance Index of < 5 during a predominantly continuous snoring episode without significant drops in oxygen saturation. Clinical cardio-respiratoric polysomnographic monitoring showed a normal architecture of sleep interrupted by respiratory arousals. Under nasal CPAP treatment these arousals, as well as the complained excessive daytime sleepiness disappeared. The latter fact becomes evident, when comparing the sleep latencies before therapy to those under CPAP-treatment, estimated by the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT). Thus, this therapy proved to be very effective in patients suffering from obstructive snoring.