New Study: Reducing the Risk of Pulmonary Complications Among Patients with Sleep Apnea Undergoing Surgery

In patients with sleep apnea, perioperative pulmonary complications after orthopaedic and general surgery are significantly more frequent vs matched samples without sleep apnea, according to new research.

Stavros Memtsoudis, MD, with the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, in New York, NY, and colleagues reported their findings in the January 2011 issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia.

The current study of data from the National Inpatient Sample database was designed to compare perioperative pulmonary outcomes in patients with sleep apnea vs matched control participants and included 3,441,262 general surgery entries and 2,610,441 orthopaedic surgery entries collected between 1998 and 2007. Sleep apnea was diagnosed at a frequency of 2.52% and 1.40% for the 2 surgery types, respectively.

Read Abstract: Perioperative Pulmonary Outcomes in Patients with Sleep Apnea After Noncardiac Surgery2011 Jan;112(1):113-21