Compression Stockings Help Sleep Apnea

By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today Published: August 05, 2011 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

Compression stockings might be a simple – and low-tech – way to improve sleep apnea in patients who also have chronic venous insufficiency in the lower limbs, researchers reported. In a small randomized cross-over study, wearing the stockings during the day reduced episodes of apnea and hypopnea by more than a third, according to Stefania Redolfi, MD, now at the University of Brescia in Brescia, Italy, and colleagues in Paris and Toronto./.../