[Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in childhood: study of three cases].

We report three children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, two secondary to pharyngeal obstruction and the third secondary to laryngomalacia. All patients presented important respiratory efforts with inspiratory stridor during sleep, frequent obstructive apneas with important hipoxemia, sweating, and arousal episodes. Two patients suffered excessive daytime sleepiness, behavioral disturbances and development delay, and the third, intelligence in the borderline retardation range, and important heart arritmias (bradycardia with ventricular extrasystoles) during obstructive apneas. In two children the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and the secondary symptoms disappeared after adenotonsillectomy. The patient with laryngomalacia required tracheostomy.