Otorhinolaryngologic Manifestations in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

INTRODUCTION: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) for otorhinolaryngological manifestations.\ud METHODS: A total of 347 patients who were diagnosed to have OSAS by polysomnography between April 2010 - September 2015 were included in the study. Data of patients, which were collected from patient registry records on hospital computer automation system, were analyzed, retrospectively.\ud RESULTS: A total of 117 otorhinolaryngological manifestations diagnosed in all of the OSAS patients. According to the polysonographic findings, 26 of these patients had simple snoring while 30 had mild OSAS, 20 had moderate OSAS and 41 had severe OSAS. When the OSAS group (mild-moderate-severe) (n=91) was examined, 68 patients had nasal septum deviation, 28 had inferior concha hypertrophy, 23 had tongue base hypertrophy, 20 had tonsillar hypertrophy and 33 had elongated soft palate. When the simple snoring group was examined, 20 patients had nasal septum deviation, 8 had inferior concha hypertrophy, 5 had tongue base hypertrophy, 3 had tonsillar hypertrophy and 4 had elongated soft palate. When both groups were compared, it was seen that the only significant difference was that the OSAS group had higher values in terms of elongated soft palate (p˂ 0.05). When OSAS group was examined, nasal septum deviation and concha hypertrophy were the most commonly coexisting conditions among all otorhinolaryngologic diagnosis (12.09%). Similarly, in OSAS group, nasal septum deviation, tongue base hypertrophy and elongated soft palate were the most commonly coexisting diagnosis (8.79%).There was only 1 patient having all the otorhinolaryngologic diagnosis (1.1%).\ud DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome cause severe morbidity and mortality. Otorhinolaryngological pathologies have an important role in the physiopathology of OSAS and early diagnosis has a great importance in reducing mortality and morbidity