Urgent Need to Improve Diagnosis of Sleep Disordered Breathing in Surgical Patients
January 7th, 2009 by Lynnette ShaferSleep disordered breathing includes a group of disorders, such as obstructive and central sleep apnea, that are characterized by repeated arousals from sleep as a result of a cessation in breathing, causing highly fragmented and poor quality sleep. Many studies point to a strong link between sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and a number of disorders, particularly cardiovascular disease. Several other studies are finding that adverse surgical outcomes are more frequent in patients with sleep apnea, as both anesthesia and surgery exacerbate airway instability and affect homeostasis in that patient population.
Dr. Nancy Foldvary from Cleveland Clinic Foundation suggests that patients with sleep apnea may be at increased risk for postoperative complications with a greater need for intensive monitoring. Since SDB is a complicating factor in many surgeries, the ability to conveniently conduct a sleep study in those settings can improve the peri-operative management of care, particularly for bariatric and cardiac surgery patients who have high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (Another potential application for wireless PSG is to diagnose those inpatients with cardiovascular disease who are also suspected of having OSA).
Dr. Nancy Collop with John Hopkins University summarizes that there is an urgent need to improve the diagnosis of sleep disordered breathing in surgical patients in order to avoid complications intraoperatively and postoperatively.
This post draws from the opinions of experts featured in the following news article: CleveMed receives $2.3 million in NIH funding for inpatient diagnosis of sleep disorders in cardiovascular surgery patients
Tags: bariatric, cardiac surgery, cardiovascular disease, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, intraoperative complications, John Hopkins University, OSA, postoperative complications, sleep apnea, sleep disordered breathing, Sleep Disorders, surgical patients, wireless PSG
February 5th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
[...] used to aid in assessment of sleep disordered breathing outside the traditional sleep lab (in a hospital setting, or typically perfect for self-administered home sleep testing right in the patient’s home). [...]