title: Sleep medicine: pediatric polysomnography revisited.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sleep medicine is an increasingly well subscribed component of pediatric medicine. While knowledge has increased significantly in the past five decades, whether the most widely used tool to assess sleep-disordered breathing possesses demonstrable clinical utility remains unknown. The absence of certainty surrounding the impact of polysomnography (PSG) testing on clinical outcomes, superimposed on the cost and inconvenience of PSG testing, prompts a call to reassess the current normative stance toward PSG testing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The present study argues for the use of the following: endpoints that have known clinical significance; readily available data provided by parents; and data derived from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to determine the merits of PSG testing in the context of obstructive sleep apnea.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By rationalizing the use PSG testing, cost, inconvenience, and parental anxiety can be decreased without compromising care.
authors.affiliation: Center for Excellence in Pulmonary Biology, Divisions of Pulmonary, Asthma and Sleep Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University Medical School, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Cornfield
authors.forename: Sumit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhargava
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000379:methods; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome