Diagnosis and Treatment

If your child has complex sleep apnea that is associated with a chronic disease, syndrome, or disorder, they can benefit from our multispecialty care.

Diagnosing complex obstructive sleep apnea

• A comprehensive evaluation in one visit. Your child will be evaluated by multiple specialists at the same time to determine the best care approach for their severe sleep apnea. At the end of your child’s visit, you will receive our combined care recommendations, personalized to your child, and an outline of next steps.
• Innovative Cine MRI to pinpoint sleep apnea. We are the first pediatric obstructive sleep apnea program in the Western U.S. to establish a Cine MRI team—a multispecialty group of doctors in neurology, sleep medicine, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Together, we can simulate sleep with anesthesia and identify areas of anatomic collapse with endoscopy and MRI imaging to pinpoint the source of your child’s sleep apnea and, if needed, precisely plan your child’s surgery.
• Drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) for children with complex conditions. Because we have access to incredible resources within Stanford Children’s, including advanced pediatric anesthesiology and the highest level of intensive care, we are able to safely assess the airway of children with severe anatomical malformations or morbid obesity. With DISE, your child is sedated with medications while being closely monitored to achieve the ideal sedation when sleep apnea occurs. We then assess the airway with endoscopy—a camera on a thin, flexible tube inserted in your child’s nose—to identify the areas of anatomical obstruction. DISE is only available at large children’s hospitals with a comprehensive care model, like ours.

Treating complex obstructive sleep apnea

We treat complex obstructive sleep apnea with a combination of surgical and medical solutions, depending on your child’s needs. Our care includes:

• Advanced surgeries to repair your child’s anatomy. We provide targeted surgeries that are tailored to your child’s needs and specialized procedures that take care to the next level. In simple cases of obstructive sleep apnea—when a physical structure is blocking the airway—relief is often found by removing oversized tonsils or adenoids. However, sometimes a child has another anatomical issue, such as the tongue or another part of the airway collapsing during sleep, underdeveloped or atypical skeletal anatomy that can lead to upper airway obstruction, or irregular nasal anatomy that restricts normal airflow. Our exceptional surgeons are skilled at performing advanced procedures to correct your child’s anatomy, including expansion procedures for the upper airway and nerve stimulator implants to prevent tongue collapse.
• Ongoing management of sleep apnea. In children with multiple or severe chronic conditions, we provide lifelong care for sleep apnea, helping to minimize its effects and improve your child’s quality of life. Because we are a research institution, we participate in clinical trials, giving you access to new sleep apnea devices for your child beyond standard continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines.
• Transitioning teens to adult care. When your child becomes a young adult, we provide a seamless transfer of care to our adult Sleep Medicine Center at Stanford Health Care, if needed, to ensure that care is familiar and easy to access.