Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Otorhinolaryngol. Feb 28, 2015; 5(1): 1-4
Published online Feb 28, 2015. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v5.i1.1
Obstructive sleep apnea: An interdisciplinary challenge for otorhinolaryngologists
Haralampos Gouveris
Haralampos Gouveris, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Medical Centre of the University of Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany
Author contributions: Gouveris H solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: The author has no conflict of interest related to the present manuscript to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Haralampos Gouveris, MD, PhD, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Medical Centre of the University of Mainz, Langenbeckstr.1, 55131 Mainz, Germany. hagouve@yahoo.de
Telephone: +49-6131-177361 Fax: +49-6131-176637
Received: December 11, 2014
Peer-review started: December 13, 2014
First decision: December 26, 2014
Revised: January 5, 2015
Accepted: January 15, 2015
Article in press: January 15, 2015
Published online: February 28, 2015
Processing time: 74 Days and 9 Hours
Abstract

Otolaryngologists play a pivotal role in the diagnosis and management of sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD) in both adults and children. Otolaryngologists are often the first medical specialists to be contacted by patients with complaints as snoring, episodic sleep apnea observed by the bed partners with or without reported excessive daytime sleepiness and therefore emerge as important gatekeepers of the general health of an individual by means of an active preventive, and in many cases therapeutic, role. Comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of SRBD requires a team approach and hence building interdisciplinary teams with other involved relevant specialties is necessary from the patients’ perspective.

Keywords: Apnea; Surgery; Obstructive; Continuous positive airway pressure; Sleep

Core tip: Otolaryngologists are quite often the first medical specialists to be contacted by patients with such complaints as snoring, episodic sleep apnea observed by the bed partners with or without reported excessive daytime sleepiness and may therefore emerge as important gatekeepers of the general health of an individual by means of an active preventive, and in many cases therapeutic, role.