WE OFFER THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE DIAGNOSTIC AND TREATMENT CAPABILITIES IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY

Some sleep disorders centers are able to perform only basic monitoring that may suffice for assessment of some patients, but that will fail to accurately diagnose others.

As an example, seizure disorders are highly prevalent and can cause abnormal sleep-related events or impaired alertness suggesting sleepiness. Unfortunately, many sleep centers do not offer full electroencephalographic monitoring for seizures.

Gastroesophageal reflux in sleep, which can cause chest pains indistinguishable from angina due to coronary heart disease, often provokes repeated arousals with coughing, choking and asthmatic symptoms in addition to the risk of aspiration in sleep. Few sleep centers are able to record esophageal acidity levels in their patients.

Also, a subtle disorder of breathing during sleep (upper airway resistance syndrome) is widespread and serious. It was shown to be as likely to cause highway crashes from sleepiness as sleep apnea. But it is easily missed by conventional sleep monitoring techniques, and most centers do not offer the type of testing needed to confirm the presence of this serious disorder.

Marginal monitoring capabilities can also compromise patient safety during testing. Many sleep centers lack the ability to monitor carbon dioxide tensions during sleep. This poses a potentially serious problem whenever oxygen administration during polysomnography induces a buildup of carbon dioxide in the body, which can lead to respiratory arrest if undetected and severe.

The Columbus Community Health Regional Sleep Disorders Center is also at the forefront of important new treatments. Fifteen to twenty percent of patients with obstructive sleep apnea immediately develop repeated pauses in breathing from lack of breathing effort, with severe sleep fragmentation and inability to maintain restful sleep, upon being started on either CPAP or bilevel positive airway pressure. A large percentage of these patients cannot tolerate CPAP or bilevel PAP as a consequence and abandon treatment. Failure to address this problem of central sleep apneas (CSA) appears to represent a major cause of the nationally poor rates of compliance with treatment of obstructive sleep apnea--and the condition, if severe and untreated, can be life-threatening. Our prior treatments for CSA were frequently ineffective. Fortunately, a new answer, adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV) that is almost always works beautifully just became available.

Many sleep centers simply treat obstructive sleep apneas and do not deal with central apneas. And very few centers offer adaptive servo-ventilation. ASV can make a difference between a patient going untreated or enjoying comfortable treatment with elimination of the risks of heart attack, heart failure, stroke, accelerated coronary disease and daytime sleepiness and fatigue. The Columbus Community Health has full ASV capabilities on site, and, as of September, 2006, it is the only center in this part of Ohio to offer this important new treatment during overnight monitoring.

Also, many patients with muscle weakness, chronic lung disease (COPD), severe obesity and other disorders that restrict the depth of breathing experience severe drops in blood oxygen levels and potentially dangerous accumulations of carbon dioxide in the blood. Carbon dioxide is a waste product that can reduce the patient's drive to breathe. A breakthrough therapy for this serious and widespread dilemma (AVAPS™) just became available. The Columbus Community Health Regional Sleep Disorders Center is the first in Columbus to offer this revolutionary new treatment. 

The Columbus Community Health Regional Sleep Disorders Center is unique in offering the most comprehensive spectrum of diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities of any center in this part of the country. If a referred patient may require a specific diagnostic modality, we want to ensure its immediate availability.