[Do patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome treated with nCPAP therapy lose weight?]

A simple therapy for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome is weight reduction, which we always recommend before initiating and maintaining nCPAP-therapy. We documented the body weight of 123 patients (9 women, 114 men; age 53.8 +/- 10 years, initial apnoea-hypopnoea-index 40.7 +/- 22.6/hour) before and after 582 +/- 391 days nCPAP-therapy. Absolute and relative (Broca Index: weight [kg]/[height [cm] -100] x 100) body weight was 97.8 +/- 19.4 kg resp. 128.3 +/- 24.3 units before and 97.3 +/- 18.2 kg resp. 127.8 +/- 23.5 units during therapy (not significant). Body weight changes ranged from +22 to -26 kg. Only a subgroup of patients with a Broca index between 100-119 exhibited a significant weight change from 86.8 +/- 10.4 to 88.5 +/- 10.4 kg. We conclude that our recommendations to lose weight were unsuccessful in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea, although nCPAP-therapy generally improved well-being.