Solutions from Ukraine: Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital opens unique sleep laboratory

Photo: NCSH Okhmatdyt

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A children's sleep laboratory was opened in the capital's Okhmatdyt Hospital, which will provide unique opportunities for diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders and breathing disorders during physiological sleep in children.

The Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital reported this.

What is the problem?

A child's full sleep and compliance with the regime are necessary for maintaining physical and emotional health and full development.

On average, 120 minutes after falling asleep, the synthesis of growth hormone is activated. And at midnight, its number reaches its maximum.

A disturbed mode reduces the child's physical activity or, on the contrary, leads to hyperactivity. A violation of psychological stability causes such consequences.

During the day, the child receives a large amount of information. During rest, the brain sorts it, eliminates unnecessary memories, and leaves important moments. A child's healthy sleep has a favorable effect on memorizing information.

Sleep is a marker of a child's health, so sleep disorders definitely lead to a deterioration in the health and quality of life of the child and the family as a whole.

What is the solution?

The Okhmatdyt National Children's Specialized Hospital (NCSH) of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine announced the opening of the updated Children's Sleep Laboratory, the "Complex Neuromonitoring" office of the intensive care unit for profoundly premature babies.

^{Photo: NCSH Okhmatdyt}

As the medical facility said, this is the first such unit in Ukraine and the only one so far.

How does it work?

The children's sleep laboratory is being updated to provide children with the possibility of modern diagnosis of sleep disorders and breathing disorders during physiological sleep.

Thanks to the necessary equipment and highly qualified medical personnel, it is possible to:

•  study sleep in children of all age groups (from 0 to 18 years),
• detect sleep disorders and sleep-dependent breathing disorders,
• develop individual treatment plans for each patient and their subsequent medical support.

^{Photo: NCSH Okhmatdyt}

Indications for the study:

• all types of sleep disorders,
• malformations of the upper and lower respiratory tract, facial skeleton,
• neuromuscular diseases,
• orphan diseases,
• endocrine diseases,
• diseases of the musculoskeletal system,
• others that are accompanied by breathing disorders during sleep.

The gold standard for studying sleep and sleep-dependent breathing disorders is polysomnography.

^{Photo: NCSH Okhmatdyt}

Polysomnography is performed on the referral of a family doctor or a doctor based on a pathology profile on the referral of the Okhmatdyt National Health Service Polyclinic and the structural units of the Okhmatdyt hospital.

The study is being conducted based on the Department of Intensive Care of Severely Premature Children of the Okhmadyt NCSH of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, at the address Kyiv, 28/1 Chornovola Street, tel. (044-236-69-20).

To conduct the study, hospitalization in one of the hospital's departments is required (according to the age and profile of the disease), which was previously agreed with the medical director for medical issues, tel. (044-236-01-92).

For reference:

It should be noted that the first Ronald McDonald House in Ukraine for families with seriously ill children will be built in Kyiv on the territory of the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital.

Moreover, the "Tabletochki" charity organization has started a fundraiser to get 111,000 tests for kids with cancer and patients of Okhmatdyt by the end of 2023. It will cost 3.8 million hryvnias in total.