An audit of the sleep medicine service in Oman

OBJECTIVE: To audit the sleep service at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), Muscat, Oman, and to explore deficiencies to introduce new measures of improvement.

METHODS: Polysomnography (PSG) reports and SQUH medical records of all patients who underwent sleep studies from January 1995 to December 2006 in the sleep laboratory at SQUH were reviewed and analyzed.

RESULTS: Out of a total of 1042 sleep studies conducted in the specified period, 768 PSG recordings were valid for analysis. The audit showed that the Otolaryngology Department was the main referring specialty for PSG (43%). Snoring was the main symptom for 33% of the subjects referred, but suspicion of obstructive sleep apnea was the main reason for referral (38%). Three quarters of the patients were males who were also younger, and with lower body mass index compared to females (p=0.0001 for all). Despite large number of patients with an apnea-hypopnea index of >15 (n=261), only 94 (36%) patients received continuous positive airway pressure titrations and treatment.

CONCLUSION: The sleep medicine service in SQUH provided the basic service, and raised the awareness of the importance of this specialty. However, substantial effort is required to bring it to international standards.