[The sleep apnea syndrome]

The authors presents an pathologic entity whose importance has been outlined in the last few years: sleep apnea syndromes. They insisted on the level of study of this syndrome in western countries. They presents the etiology, the pathophysiology and the main complication and they emphasizes the risks of traffic accidents due to the fall asleep and the cardiovascular complication. The therapeutical possibilities depending on the evolutive stage has been surveyed.