Sleep apnea classification

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

There are three types of sleep apnea: Obstructive, central and mixed. Of the three, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common. Irrespective of the underlying cause, individuals of untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly, sometimes hundreds of times during the night usually for a minute or longer, during their sleep. Most of the times, these individuals are usually unaware of these episodes because they don't trigger a full awakening. Obstructive sleep apnea results from the narrowing or total blockage of the airway. However, in central sleep apnea, there is failure of the central nervous system to send appropriate signals to the muscles of respiration which control breathing. It is also possible for an individual to have a combination of these two types, referred to as mixed apnea.

Classification

Sleep apnea can be classified into three categories:

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

This is the commonest of the three forms. It results from the narrowing or total blockage of the respiratory airway which occurs when the soft tissue at the back of the throat collapses during sleep.

Central Sleep Apnea

Unlike OSA, the respiratory passages are not blocked, but the brain is unable to send appropriate signal to the muscles that control breathing due to the instability of the respiratory center.

Mixed Apnea and Complex Sleep Apnea

Some individuals may have a combination of both types of sleep apnea. Complex sleep apnea (CompSA, also called 'treatment-emergent central sleep apnea') is the emergence or an increase in central apneas during the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) treatment in an individual with a longstanding or severe obstructive sleep apnea.