Finnish children who needed long‐term home respiratory support had severe sleep‐disordered breathing and complex medical backgrounds

Aim No studies have described long‐term paediatric home respiratory support in Nordic countries. We examined the clinical characteristics and long‐term outcomes of paediatric patients who received continuous positive airway pressure, non‐invasive‐positive‐pressure ventilation and invasive ventilation from a multidisciplinary home respiratory support team. Methods Retrospective tertiary‐level data were collected between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2020 in Tampere University Hospital. These comprised patient demographics, treatment course and polysomnography‐confirmed sleep‐disordered breathing (SDB). Results There were 93 patients (63.4% boys). The median age at treatment initiation was 8.4 (range 0.11–16.9) years. The patients had: neuromuscular disease (16.1%), central nervous system disease (14.0%), developmental disabilities and congenital syndrome (29.0%), lung‐airway conditions (11.8%), craniofacial syndrome (15.1%) and severe obesity (14.0%). More than two‐thirds had severe SDB (66.7%) and the most common one was obstructive sleep apnoea in 66.7%. We found that 92.5% received long‐term therapy for more than 3 months and the mean treatment duration was 3.3 ± 2.7 years. A non‐invasive mask interface was used in 94.7% of cases and 5.3% needed tracheostomy ventilation. More than a quarter (26.7%) achieved disease resolution during the study period. Conclusion Most children who needed long‐term home respiratory support had complex conditions and severe, persistent SDB.