Beneficial effects of continuous positive airway pressure therapy in a pediatric intestinal transplant recipient with obstructive sleep apnea

摘要

The association of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with mortality and respiratory diseases was demonstrated in a recent study [ 1 ]. We encountered a pediatric intestinal posttransplant recipient with OSA in whom continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy may have a preventive effect on respiratory tract infection. A 3-year-old Japanese boy received an intestinal transplant from a living donor (his mother) because of short-bowel syndrome. During the 5 years following transplantation, he required hospital-ization 19 times, including four episodes of acute rejection and three of respiratory tract infection. At the age of four, he developed severe pneumonia and congestive heart failure and needed nonin-vasive positive pressure ventilation