You may not have considered using a leukotriene modifier to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) but Goldbart et al. (
doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-0310) certainly have in a double-blind randomized placebo controlled trial we are sharing this week. The investigators provided daily oral monteleukast or placebo for 12 weeks to children with OSA, and then followed these patients with polysomnographic studies, questionnaires, and radiographs to measure adenoid size before and after therapy. The findings will certainly wake you up and make you think about using this pharmacologic agent or at least discussing it with your otolaryngology or sleep specialists. While we hope to see these results duplicated with an even larger number of patients, this study will certainly encourage such future studies to happen.
