AUTHOR=Rani Seema , Schanz John , Chauhan Kapil , Kolb August , Gatta Victoria , Strang Abigail , Chidekel Aaron C. 

TITLE=Pediatric polysomnography-flagging etiologies and impact on the clinical timeline

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sleep

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sleep/articles/10.3389/frsle.2023.1302509

DOI=10.3389/frsle.2023.1302509

ISSN=2813-2890

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background/objective</title><p>There is a paucity of literature regarding “flagging” abnormal sleep studies for expedited review. This single-center retrospective analysis (<italic>n</italic> = 266) of flagged polysomnography studies from 2019 to 2022 aimed to investigate flagging and its impact on the clinical timeline.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Two hundred sixty-six flagged polysomnography studies from 2019 to 2022 were retrospectively reviewed.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Flagged study etiologies included repetitive brief oxygen desaturations (46.6%), sustained desaturations (32.3%), sustained hypercapnia (5.6%), or other concerning events (15.5%). The median time between a flagged study and scoring report finalization, medical intervention, and surgical intervention were 0 (2) days, 2 (3) days, 5 (11.25) days, and 44 (73) days, respectively. Patients with apnea–hypopnea index &gt;30 had less time between a flagged study and surgical intervention (65.3 ± 96.7 days vs. 112 ± 119 days, <italic>p</italic> = 0.044).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>As anticipated, the time to surgical intervention was longer than to medical intervention. Patients with a higher disease severity experienced quicker scoring, report finalization, and surgical intervention.</p></sec>