Paeds Cases · respiratory-sleep-and-airway

Narcolepsy and hypersomnolence — structured clinical encounter

Structured encounter testing the approach to a school-aged child with three months of irresistible daytime sleepiness who loses muscle tone in the head and knees when laughing and has gained weight rapidly: the recognition of cataplexy and narcolepsy type 1, the exclusion of secondary sleepiness, the confirmatory polysomnography, multiple sleep latency test and cerebrospinal fluid orexin, the layered management of sleepiness and cataplexy, the monitoring, and the conversation with the family about a lifelong condition and its impact on school and safety.