CHRISTUS Children’s Sleep Clinic is the only sleep program in the San Antonio metro area that is specifically designed to perform sleep studies for pediatric and adolescent patients (newborns up to age 17).
Our six-bed specialized care clinic provides testing to patients with various sleeping disorders that affect their health and well-being.
The philosophy of CHRISTUS Children’s Sleep Clinic is to provide clinical care and technical expertise of the highest quality in a family-inclusive environment. Our goal is to ensure that the Sleep Center is well prepared to diagnose, assess and treat the full spectrum of sleep and its disorders.
While there is a range of sleep disorders affecting children, the most common disorders include:
Our center uses state of the art equipment, including transcutaneous carbon dioxide monitoring for every patient being tested. This gives CHRISTUS Children’s Sleep Center a unique advantage, as most other sleep programs in the area generally only have one or two units per facility. Our center also utilizes a portable polysomnography unit, which gives us the ability to provide bedside sleep studies for hospitalized patients when the need arises.
The MSLT tests for excessive daytime sleepiness by measuring how quickly you fall asleep in a quiet environment during the day. Also known as a daytime nap study, the MSLT is the standard tool used to diagnose narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia.
A polysomnography, better known as a sleep study, consists of an overnight monitoring session. Various sensors are placed on the child so that different parts of the sleep episode can be tracked. This includes respiration, pulse, heart function, lung function, movements of the eye, chin and leg as well as brain wave patterns (EEG). A one-night sleep study results in an enormous amount of information which can assist the medical team in an appropriate diagnosis.
A specialized wristwatch-like device is used to monitor the rest/activity rhythms of the patents. Diagnostic sleep studies may be followed by medical interventions (i.e. supplemental oxygen, CPAP/BiPAP therapy, mechanical ventilation) and/or further evaluation by a pediatric sleep specialist or additional pediatric subspecialist physician.
Our team in the Sleep Center consists of six sleep technologists who provide diagnostic services to our patients from 7 p.m. – 7 a.m. They are directed by a pediatric sleep specialist who is board certified in pediatrics and sleep medicine by the American Board of Pediatrics.
Two of our sleep technologists are also Registered Respiratory Therapists. Having them on staff allows us to provide service to patients with compromised respiratory diseases. We perform sleep studies using the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recommended guidelines of a 2:1 technologist-to-patient ratio. Patients with special needs may have a 1:1 technologist-to-patient ratio, as determined on a per-case basis.
Our daytime staff consists of the Medical Director, Clinical Director, a sleep technologist/sleep scorer, and our Sleep Center Coordinator/Scheduler. When daytime sleep testing is required, the daytime scoring technologist performs the sleep studies and scores the nighttime sleep studies using the AASM recommended guidelines.
