Stanford Children’s Health
Complex Sleep Disorders Clinic Comprehensive pediatric sleep clinic for complex sleep disordered breathing disorders Good sleep is key to a child’s health. Optimal growth, normal immunological function, normal brain development, and cardiovascular well-being all depend on it. Otolaryngology, in collaboration with the Pediatric Pulmonology, Asthma and Sleep Medicine Center, is establishing a multidisciplinary Complex Sleep Disorders Clinic. This clinic will evaluate patients with various medical issues affecting sleep to develop a comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment plan. The clinic will specialize in the medical and surgical evaluation of sleep disordered breathing in patients with complex medical conditions that include but are not limited to neuromuscular disease, genetic syndromes, craniofacial abnormalities, and morbid obesity. Collaborative relationships have also been established with other relevant specialties, including psychiatry for insomnia and mental health issues, craniofacial and maxillofacial surgery, and pain management and integrative medicine. The clinic’s state-of-the-art diagnosis of children with sleep disordered breathing will employ sleep endoscopy, a technique that can identify areas of obstruction, which is important in children whose disordered sleep is not caused by their tonsils or adenoids. Their apnea often can be effectively addressed with tongue-base and/or epiglottis
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surgery. Mild palate abnormalities sometimes result in narrow airway passages that also can affect breathing during sleep; this condition can now often be successfully managed with dental appliances, again bypassing unnecessary surgery. Patients who are not candidates for surgical intervention will be managed by pediatric pulmonary and sleep medicine physicians who prescribe advanced noninvasive ventilation therapy with close follow-up in the pediatric sleep clinic. The clinic’s primary goal is to provide comprehensive and multidisciplinary care for patients with complex sleep disordered breathing disorders in an efficient and effective manner, minimizing the need to make multiple appointments and reducing the time taken for diagnosis and treatment.
