Mumbai gets its first sleep lab at Cooper Hospital

Mumbai: The first sleep lab in the city has been started at civic-run Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle. The lab will detect patients suffering from snoring disorders and sleep apnoea, a dangerous disorder that can lead to cardiac arrests among sleepers. Treatment will be free.

The lab will deploy a test known as Polysomnography (PSG), a multi-parametric test used in study of sleep and as diagnostic tool in sleep medicine. The test result is called a Polysomnogram.

Around 30 per cent of the city’s population suffers from sleep disorders but doctors say that there has been a 15 per cent increase in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) cases in Mumbai and that it’s soon becoming a lifestyle disease.

Dr Shashikant Masal, head of the E.N.T. department told The Asian Age, “Lots of patients often complain about sleep-related disorders, especially OSA. Many hospitals are not that well equipped with lab facilities so to rule out the exact cause, we have the lab that has been just started.”

“In this lab, PSG is a comprehensive recording of bio-physiological changes that occur during sleep. It is usually performed at night, when most people sleep, though some labs can accommodate shift workers and people with circadian rhythm sleep disorders and conduct the test at other times of day,” he said.

The PSG monitors many body functions including brain (EEG), eye movements (EOG), muscle activity or skeletal muscle activation (EMG) and heart rhythm (ECG) during sleep. The lack of awareness is like a time bomb and if untreated, OSA can cause complications.

At a sleep centre, doctors typically start by ascertaining your sleep history – how you sleep, how often, how long, your snoring patterns – and then look for underlying causes like medication or existing conditions like diabetes or hyperthyroidism.

There are total eight beds to conduct the sleep study and adequate staff including two HODs and three technicians at the sleep lab. A tiny electrode is strapped to your head, face, chest, arms and legs while you are encouraged to sleep for eight hours.

Another Cadaver lab opened

A lab known as the cadaver lab has also been started on Friday at civic-run Cooper Hospital. The objective is to train students in studying human anatomy and carrying out transplants. Dr Ganesh Shinde, dean, Cooper Hospital, said, “The laboratory started and the basic idea is to ensure that medical students are trained and taught about how cadaver donation and transplant is conducted. In order to perform transplants, they should have knowledge of how an organ is retrieved and transplanted in the human body.”