Comments on split-night polysomnography

Abstract

The need for speeding up the diagnosis and treatment of sleep-disordered breathing has increased in recent years. In order to achieve that, a split-night protocol has been implemented, in which the patient with suspected sleep-disordered breathing undergoes a diagnostic and therapeutic study in one night. Elshaug et al. (1), by using the split-night protocol, were able to reduce the time to initiate continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy by 15% in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea. However, reviewing the limitations of said protocol is necessary to make it more streamline.