The majority of children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who took oral montelukast showed reductions in their apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) scores, in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study.
Typically, OSA in children is treated by adenotonsillectomy, according to Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, MD, director of clinical sleep research at the University of Chicago, and her colleagues. Prior to this study, only one randomized controlled trial had showed that children with mild OSA “responded favorably” to the leukotriene modifier montelukast (Pediatrics. 2012 Aug 31. doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-0310).
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Twenty (71%) of the children who received montelukast had fewer AHI events per hour of total sleep time at the end of the study. The average number of such events for these patients was 4.2 plus or minus 2.8 after taking the drug, compared with 9.2 plus or minus 4.1 at the beginning of the study (P less than .0001). Only two (6.9%) of the patients who took the placebo had lower AHI scores at the end of the study, with the average AHI score for the placebo group having been 8.7 plus or minus 4.9 events per hour of total sleep time. At baseline, the average score for patients in the placebo group was 8.2 plus or minus 5.0 AHI events per hour of total sleep time at baseline.
Another improvement seen by patients who received the drug was a decrease in the number of 3% reductions in arterial oxygen saturation per hour of sleep. At the beginning of the study, these patients had 7.2 plus or minus 3.1 of these events; by the end of the study, the number of these events was down to 2.8 plus or minus 1.8 (P less than .001). No significant decrease in the number of these events was seen among patients in the placebo group.
In this study, “montelukast emerges as favorably reducing the severity of OSA short term in children 2-10 years of age. These findings add to the existing evidence supporting a therapeutic role for anti-inflammatory approaches in the management of this highly prevalent condition in children, and clearly justify future studies targeting the long-term benefits of these approaches in children with OSA,” the researchers wrote.
All patients participated in overnight sleep studies following a referral to one of two sleep clinics by their primary care pediatrician or pediatric otolaryngologist, at the beginning of the study. Children who had been diagnosed with symptomatic snoring and had an AHI score of greater than 2 events per hour of total sleep time, and for whom adenotonsillectomy was contemplated, were included in the study.
Central, obstructive, mixed apneic events were counted and hypopneas were assessed. OSA was defined “as the absence of airflow with continued chest wall and abdominal movement for a duration of at least two breaths,” the investigators said. Hypopneas were defined “as a decrease in oronasal flow greater than 50% on either the thermistor or nasal pressure transducer signal. with a corresponding decrease in arterial oxygen saturation greater than 3% or arousal,” Dr. Kheirandish-Gozal and her coauthors said.
Patients were excluded from the study for a variety of reasons, including having severe OSA requiring early surgical intervention.
Adverse events included headache in two children, one from the experimental group and one from the placebo group, and nausea in two subjects from the placebo group and in one from the montelukast group.
Merck provided tablets used in this study. Dr. Kheirandish-Gozal reported grants from Merck and the National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study. David Gozal, MD, is supported by the Herbert T. Abelson Chair in Pediatrics at the University of Chicago.