1. Underappreciation of sleep disorders as a cause of motor vehicle crashes
- Author
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Gregory Smull, Joanne Getsy, Janet McMaster, Rosemary A. Kozar, Basil Chang, and Barry D. Fuchs
- Subjects
Sleep Wake Disorders ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Poison control ,Occupational safety and health ,Trauma Centers ,Injury prevention ,medicine ,Humans ,Mass Screening ,Practice Patterns, Physicians' ,Risk factor ,Retrospective Studies ,Sleep Apnea, Obstructive ,Sleep disorder ,business.industry ,Data Collection ,Trauma center ,Accidents, Traffic ,General Medicine ,Emergency department ,Pennsylvania ,medicine.disease ,United States ,Obstructive sleep apnea ,Emergency Medicine ,Physical therapy ,Wounds and Injuries ,business ,human activities ,Algorithms - Abstract
Despite an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes (MVC) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), we hypothesized that OSA was not considered in drivers admitted to trauma centers after an injury-producing MVC. A retrospective study on drivers involved in MVCs admitted to a level 1 trauma center was performed, with crash cause determined and the frequency of sleep studies recorded. A questionnaire was also mailed to 240 trauma centers seeking information on evaluation of patients with unexplained causes for MVCs, including screening for OSA. There were 122 drivers of MVCs admitted to our hospital, 60/122 (49%) had unexplained crashes and no sleep studies were performed. There were 70 survey respondents (30% return rate), 35/70 (50%) centers routinely screened for syncope after unexplained MVC, however, no center screened for OSA. US trauma centers do not screen for sleep disorders despite the associated increased crash risk and the high prevalence of crashes that can not be explained by other causes. We believe this reflects a lack of awareness of sleep disorders by health care professionals caring for trauma victims and education is of utmost importance.
- Published
- 2001
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