2023-06-24 04:00:00
Sleep clinics are flourishing in our country. Sleep disorders are increasingly being taken care of. Apnea is one of the most common disorders diagnosed. This little-known syndrome is nevertheless common and can ruin the lives of patients. One of our teams went to the sleep clinic in Hornu, in Hainaut, where 3,200 patients are equipped, in just 2 years, with a device that has changed their lives.
We sleep nearly a third of our lives. But, for Raffaele, the nights had been difficult since childhood. A sleep far from being restorative. The apneas ruined his nights and those of his wife.
“She told me concretely that she might no longer hear me breathe for long periods of time ranging from 10 seconds to a minute. And in the morning, when I wake up, I have bars in my head, like a little the day following big parties. And this bar persists for a large part of the day”, confides Raffaele, suffering from sleep apnea syndrome.
I thought I looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, but I look more like Darth Vader
Signs that should alert. That day, he has an appointment at the sleep clinic in Hornu for a check-up because, for 2 months, Raffaele has been equipped with a machine every night. A kind of mask to place on the face. This new companion is called CPAP for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.
“How is it going with the machine”, asks Micheline Delfosse, coordinator of the sleep clinic. “Very good, no worries”, replies the patient. The turbine pulses air to free his airways. “I sleep better. And my wife hears me snore less, so she sleeps better too. Afterwards, it’s immediately less glamorous. I thought I looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, but I look more like Darth Vader”, Raffaele quips.
Without being overweight, the patient was a severe case. From 60 apneas per hour, it went to 4 apneas.”When they adhere well to the treatment, they can no longer do without it. When they are on vacation, it is the first thing they prepare, before the suitcase. They really need it.” believes Micheline Delfosse.
“This CPAP device has revolutionized treatment”
Raffaele will then spend the night in the hospital to perform a polysomnography. We record the sleep of the patients to target their problem and the solutions. Before the air turbine, which appeared in the 1980s, the methods were rather radical. “Before, we treated people through a tracheotomy, so really make a hole below the vocal cords to stop having apneas. This CPAP device has revolutionized treatment and it is the reference treatment currently in severe apnea syndromes. In moderate apnea syndromes, an orthosis can be chosen”, says Charbel El Khawand, pulmonologist at the Epicura hospital in Hornu.
It’s time to gear up for Raffaele. A total of 16 sensors are placed on it to check that the machine is in focus. “When you dream at night, under your eyelids, the eyes open and close. And so we’ll see when you’re in REM sleep.” explains a nurse.
140,000 people treated for this problem
Reimbursed by social security, the machine costs him 25 cents per night. The price of health, because apneas deprive of oxygen. And, without it, the heart is damaged. “Here I am ready for space”, Raffaele laughs. “Apnea can cause a lot of other problems. For my part, I suffer from bradycardia and tachycardia. I also consult a cardiologist and I have a background treatment and with CPAP, we are slowly trying to regulate the whole”, he confides.
In Belgium, nearly 140,000 people are treated for this problem. “Sleep medicine now is still a recent medicine that is changing a lot”underlines the pulmonologist.
Freediving represents 80% of the activity of specialized centres. The treatment changed Raffaele’s life. Since then, it’s been day and night.
sleep apnea health
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