title: Split-night polysomnography.
abstract: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder associated with serious health consequences, increased health-care utilization, and economic burden. With greater public and medical attention to sleep disorders, the volume of referrals for sleep studies over the last decade has increased by approximately 12-fold. Despite the steep growth of infrastructure to diagnose and treat OSA, access to such services remains a sizeable problem, and demand overwhelms capacity. To expedite diagnosis of sleep apnea and prescription of treatment, one strategy adopted by sleep specialists is to employ split-night polysomnography, a strategy that encompasses both diagnosis of OSA and initiation of positive pressure therapy in a single night. This article reviews the literature examining this combined diagnostic/therapeutic strategy and discusses the applicable third-party issues of procedural coding and reimbursement.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. nirav.patel@uphs.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Nirav P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Murtuza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Ilene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rosen
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D006801:Humans; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*