Retrognathia and sleep apnea. A life-threatening condition masquerading as narcolepsy.

The association of sleep apnea with daytime hypersomnolence without obesity, and its potentially lethal cardiopulmonary sequelae, make it crucial that this condition be distinguished from narcolepsy. A patient with retrognathia who had been diagnosed as a narcoleptic for 15 years had the primary complaint of excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep laboratory evaluation showed severe hypoxemia and a mean of 366 upper airway obstructions per night. The patient was treated with a tracheotomy; this resulted in relief of the sleep-related upper airway obstructions, hypoxemia, and hypersomnolence.