Effect of rapid maxillary expansion on the apnoea-hypopnoea index during sleep in children. Systematic review

Rapid maxillary expansion (RME) treatment is prescribed in patients with maxillary compression, achieving increases in transverse palate and nasal cavity dimensions together with an increase in the distance between the pterygoid processes. Sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (SAHS) in children is often associated with anatomical risk factors and treatment may involve surgery, drugs, dentofacial orthopaedics, myofunctional and positional approaches.The aim of this systematic review it to obtain scientific evidence of the effect of RME on the apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) in growing patients. PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMBASE were the online databases used for the search. The scientific publicat…