Central sleep apnea with sodium oxybate in a pediatric patient

Abstract

A 12-year-old girl with normal neurodevelopment and narcolepsy type 1 presented with unexpected central apneas in response to sodium oxybate (SO). The patient underwent overnight polysomnography on SO (2.75 + 2.5 grams) which showed an apnea-hypopnea index of 4.3 events/h, and all the events were central apneas. A majority of central apneas clustered at about 1.5 hours after the first dose of SO. Remarkably, after a second dose of SO that was 0.25 grams smaller, she did not exhibit clusters of central sleep apneas. However, she did experience similar but milder breathing abnormalities that did not meet criteria to be scored as central apneas or hypopneas. Based on this observation, there may be an association between SO treatment and the development of central apnea. Further polysomnographic research on pediatric patients taking SO would help determine if there is a significant association between SO treatment and the development of central apnea in the pediatric population.