Abstract

The crucial influencing factor in the development and progression of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea might be the disharmony of craniofacial structure. The objective of this systematic review is to explain the association between craniofacial structure disharmony and pediatric obstructive sleep apnea. Citations of potentially relevant published trials were located by searching PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Web of science. Inclusion criteria were (1) randomized controlled trials, retrospective study, cross-sectional, case-series, or cohort studies with controls; (2) studies in nonsyndromic children from birth to 19 years of age with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea by either a screening questionnaire, or polysomnography; and (3) principal outcome measures of craniofacial or upper airway dimensions or proportions with various modalities of cephalometric analysis for the craniofacial and neck regions. The quality of the studies selected was evaluated by assessing their methodologies. Through the electronic searches, 1290 titles and abstracts were identified. From these, 241 met the inclusion criteria. This resulted in 6 studies from cross-sectional trials that were included in this systematic review. 1 case series reported the association between craniofacial disharmony and obstructive sleep apnea. There is statistical support for an association between craniofacial disharmony and obstructive sleep apnea. There was significant correlation between upper airways dimensions and maxillomandibular discrepancy expressed by a significantly larger ANB angle. The upper airway measurement showed a significant difference between OSA group and non-OSA group