Recent studies have shown that nasal CPAP is very effective in the treatment of patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (USA). In the present study, we examined the effects of short term nasal CPAP therapy in 10 cases of USA patients. Nasal CPAP was used for 10 to 14 days and polysomnography was performed at two consecutive nights without nasal CPAP and at one night with nasal CPAP. Uchida-Kraepelin tests were performed before the initiation of nasal CPAP therapy and also 7 to 14 days

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... er the nasal CPAP therapy. Apnea index reduced significantly in all cases from 49.0+20.3 episodes/hour without therapy to 3.1+3.3 with nasal CPAP (P<0.001). Nasal CPAP significantly reduced the frequency of obstructive and mixed apnea (P<0.01), but the frequency of central apnea did not change with nasal CPAP. During the nasal CPAP, mean nadir Sa02 rose from 87. 4+2. 7% to 92.5+1.3% (P<0.001) and lowest Sa02 rose from 74.0+5.5% to 91.8+2.5% (P<0.001). Uchida-Kraepelin test revealed significant increment of average marks after short term treatment of nasal CPAP (P<0.001). We conclude that nasal CPAP therapy during sleep is an effective and non invasive therapy for patients of USA, and may lead to rapid recovery of mental function after short term treatment.