Rethinking Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome: is obesity the primary driver of hypoventilation?

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorHamza, Zaineben
dc.contributor.editorMehta, Shobhaen
dc.contributor.editorCronin, Pádraigen
dc.date.accessioned2025-10-28T13:54:56Z
dc.date.available2025-10-28T13:54:56Z
dc.date.issued2025en
dc.description.abstractBackground: Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome (OHS) is usually diagnosed following an acute admission wit type 2 respiratory failure, or incidentally following overnight sleep studies in someone suspected of having Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Obesity is widely considered to be the main causative factor in (OHS). It follows that with increasing Body Mass Index (BMI), evidence of nocturnal hypoxaemia would emerge strongly. We hypothesized that this assumption is not accurate and set out to investigate the relationship between BMI and nocturnal hypoventilation. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 770 bariatric patients with BMIs ranging from 35-82kg/m2..Using linear and multivariate regression analysis, we assessed the relationship between BMI and surrogate markers for nocturnal hypoventilation, including average SpO2, Lowest SpO2, Time spent with SpO2<90% (T90), AHI, and bicarbonate levels. Results: As expected, AHI increased with rising BMI, indicating a higher incidence and severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea as BMI increases. However, the correlation between BMI and hypoventilatory markers was weak: for instance, in BMI vs average SpO2 (r 2 =0.01). In Multivariate regression, BMI was only associated with AHI and Lowest SpO2, both of which are more characteristic of OSA rather than hypoventilation. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome may be a misnomer, as obesity alone is unlikely to be the primary cause of hypoventilation. We propose the term “Idiopathic Hypoventilation” as a more accurate name, reflecting the possibility of an underlying neurological cause or disorder of ventilatory drive.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationMacilwraith, Peteren
dc.identifier.citationDoherty, Liamen
dc.identifier.citationO'Boyle, Colmen
dc.identifier.citationO'Connor, Derbrenn (2025) 'Rethinking Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome: is obesity the primary driver of hypoventilation?', UCC Student Medical Journal, 5, p.55. https://doi.org/10.33178/SMJ.2025.1.9en
dc.identifier.doi10.33178/SMJ.2025.1.9en
dc.identifier.endpage55en
dc.identifier.issn2737-7237
dc.identifier.journalabbrevUCC SMJ
dc.identifier.journaltitleUCC Student Medical Journalen
dc.identifier.startpage55en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18086
dc.identifier.volume5
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUCC Medical Research and Technology Societyen
dc.rights© 2025, the Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
dc.sourceBatch uploaden
dc.subjectObesity Hypoventilation Syndromeen
dc.subjectBariatric medicineen
dc.subjectSleep medicineen
dc.subjectRespiratoryen
dc.subjectObesityen
dc.subjectHypoventilationen
dc.titleRethinking Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome: is obesity the primary driver of hypoventilation?en
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Rethinking+obesity+hypoventilation+syndrome_+is+obesity+the+primary+driver+of+hypoventilation_.pdf
Size:
129.66 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published Version
Download
Collections
UCC Student Medical Journal Vol. 5 (2025)