TY - JOUR T1 - Phone medical appointments for Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Covid-19 pandemic – were they useful? JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.sleepandbreathing-2021.12 VL - 7 IS - suppl 7 SP - 12 AU - M Serino AU - J Pinto AU - M Van Zeller AU - M Drummond Y1 - 2021/04/16 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/7/suppl_7/12.abstract N2 - Introduction: The WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. The ability to integrate telecommunications and information systems was crucial.Aims: To evaluate the usefulness of teleconsultations and telemonitoring in Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) patient’s follow-up.Methods: The study was conducted at the Sleep Lab of a tertiary university hospital between 13th march and 31st May 2020. All patients included were adults with suspected or confirmed SDB. In the first phone medical appointments, a clinical interview was conducted. In the follow-up teleconsultations, all patients had SDB and we analyzed adherence to treatment, control of respiratory sleep events, PAP-related side effects, and changes in therapeutic strategies.Results: A total of 769 phone consultations were performed. In first phone medical appointments (n=149), 109 patients answered the call. In follow-up teleconsultations (n=620), 89,7% answered the call and 86,8% were under PAP-therapy. Information of PAP devices was available in 354 cases; 79.1% of patients had adequate adherence and 76% had residual AHI≤5 events/h. A new therapeutic approach was more often started in patients with nasal congestion (p<.001), rhinorrhea (p<.001), and nosebleeds (p=0.03). Changes in previous therapy were more frequent in patients with nasal congestion (p<.001), rhinorrhea (p<.001), mucosal dryness (p<.001), and nosebleeds (p=0.02). Patients whose PAP settings were changed had a higher median residual AHI, median 5 (8) events/h vs median 2 (3) events/h, p<.001. Conclusions: Teleconsultation and telemonitoring of SDB patients are possible in most cases and allow the resolution of several side effects and therapeutic adjustments.FootnotesCite this article as ERJ Open Research 2021; 7: Suppl. 7, 12.This is an ERS Lung Science Conference abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only). ER -