Surgically correctable causes of sleep apnea syndrome.

This report presents six cases of obstructive sleep apnea associated with discrete anatomic abnormalities of the upper airway tract. All patients were relieved of their sleep apnea by surgical correction of the airway obstruction, and therefore permanent tracheotomy was avoided. The obstructive causative factors were nasal septal deformity, adenoidal hypertrophy, nasopharyngeal stenosis, lingual cyst, lingual tonsillar hypertrophy, and laryngeal cyst. The last-named four conditions have not previously been reported as correctable causes of sleep apnea.