Does overweight affect the sagittal dimension of the posterior airway space in a non‐OSAS population? A case control study

OBJECTIVE: The null hypothesis was that, in a non‐obstructive sleep apnea syndrome population, overweight do not reduce the antero‐posterior dimension of the posterior airway space. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The author retrospectively reviewed the records of subjects evaluated at the Maxillofacial Surgery Unit, Department of Neurosciences, University of Padova Medical School, Padova, Italy, from 2016 to 2018. Only patients with complete demographic, anthropological and CBCT dataset were enrolled. OSAS patient were also ruled‐out. Enrolled patients were divided into overweight (28 cases) and non‐overweight (32 controls) groups according to the patient's Body Mass Index. Each two‐dimensional cephalometric radiography obtained from the cone‐beam computer tomography dataset was evaluated in order to measure linear and angular distances between standardized cephalometric landmarks. The two‐sample t‐test was the statistical test applied to compare the case and control data. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences between the two study groups for any of the evaluated variables: the null hypothesis was accepted. CONCLUSION: This study showed that in a non‐obstructive sleep‐apnea population, overweight and class I obesity does not influence the airway space in the antero‐posterior dimension. Further investigation should focus on categorized overweight‐obese population. Accurate and reliable protocol for tridimensional airways assessment should be implemented.