[The availability in Spanish public hospitals of resources for diagnosing and treating sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome].
OBJECTIVE
Sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome is associated with an overall deterioration in the patients health and affects between 1 and 2 million people in Spain. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic and therapeutic resources available in Spain for dealing with this problem in terms of both infrastructure and human resources.


METHODS
We selected 461 general hospitals, 457 (99.1%) of which answered a questionnaire in the course of a telephone interview.


RESULTS
At the time of response, 219 hospitals (47.5%) reported performing sleep studies. Conventional polysomnography was available in 53% of those hospitals, respiratory polygraphy was used in 42%, and oximetry in 5%. In 47% of the hospitals, continuous positive airway pressure was titrated empirically in most cases; the number of patients being treated with CPAP was 109,752, that is, 269 per 100,000 population in Spain.


CONCLUSIONS
The level of resources available for diagnosing and treating sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome, although improving, is clearly still inadequate. Currently, only 0.49 polysomnograph and 0.72 polygraph machines are available per 100,000 population, whereas 1 and 3 machines, respectively, are deemed necessary. Only 5% to 10% of the affected population has been diagnosed, and in 47% of the hospitals interviewed continuous positive airway pressure is not properly titrated. These results should be a clarion call to the health authorities to take the appropriate steps to address this health problem.
Durán-Cantolla
J
J
Unidad Respiratoria de Trastornos del Sueño, Hospital Txagorritxu, Vitoria, España. joaquin.duran@wanadoo.es
Mar
J
J
de La Torre Muñecas
G
G
Rubio Aramendi
R
R
Guerra
L
L
D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires