India 2021: ARJUN DASGUPTA | CMRI, CK BIRLA HOSPITALS INDIA

Delegate: ARJUN DASGUPTA

Affiliations: CMRI, CK BIRLA HOSPITALS INDIA

Short Bio: Dr. Arjun Dasgupta is a Consultant at The Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI), Kolkata.Dr. Arjun Dasgupta is Consultant ENT and Endoscopic Skull Base Surgeon for the last 25 years. Special interest in Snoring and OSA

Activity:

World Sleep Day: Know all you need to about sleep apnea

India is a country where people representing 4% out of a total population of 130 crores [meaning roughly about 5-6 crores]suffer from obstructive sleep apnea and yet there is barely any awareness on the subject.

Taking about sleep disorders, Dr. Raja Dhar explains, “If you look at the commonest or chronic diseases that afflict mankind especially in India is Diabetes. India is supposed to be the diabetic capital of the world. If you look at the number of diabetics, it is about 1.8% of the Indian population which is far lower number. If you look at the people who suffer from sleep disorder, people who have sleep related breathing issues, and the number is just double. It is about 8% of the Indian population which includes people from all age group. If you speak to any patient who comes in through the door, irrespective of which specialty they go to, you will find sleep related problems, being one of the most important complaints they have. We know that it is obese people who mainly get sleep apnea. However, we now know 25% of people with OSA have normal BMI. So, it is not the people, who are obese, it is the entire population we are targeting. Diseases like stroke, heart attack are the greatest killers of the world and are often driven by untreated sleep apnea and hence this should be addressed in the long run”.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be a risk factor for the development of other medical conditions. High blood pressure (hypertension), heart failure, heart rhythm disturbances, atherosclerotic heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, insulin resistance, and even death are some of the known complications of untreated obstructive sleep apnoea.

“There are times when people suffering from such disorders face obstructions during sleeping, they drop their saturation and starts snoring during the night. They remain unaware that they are snoring and often feels that any treatment for snoring is unnecessary as it’s just a metabolic complication. So, I feel that by increasing awareness and talking not just about snoring but highlighting that snoring can be associated with disease which is as fatal and devastating as OSA is something that needs to be focused on. The issue with OSA is that the airway collapses during night. The airway becomes narrowed and hence the flow of the air from the outside to the inside stops during the night. This happens multiple times, often even more than once in a minute. So,to counteract it, we put a mask onto the face, mainly over the nose. The masks have gone better over the time; they can be fitted snuggly into the nose in an unnoticeable way. This drives the air in and splits the airway open throughout the night. Hence, the dropping of the oxygen level during the night reduces, the breathing stabilizes, people sleep better, the snoring goes away and most importantly the metabolic complications, the hypertension, the diabetes, and the heart attack, stroke etc. gets controlled in a much better way. This can happen if someone uses the mask for a prolonged period of time” says Dr. Arjun Dasgupta.

 

 

 

Location: cmri, ck birla hospital, kolkata, west bengal, india

Date of Activity: 19th March 2021

Submitted by: ARJUN DASGUPTA