Evidence-Based Post Anesthesia Care Unit Practice Guidelines for Determining Length of Stay and Discharge Location for Surgical Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the occurrence of ≥ five apnea/hypopnea episodes in an hour accompanied by oxygen saturation decrease. The American Society of Anesthesiology (2014) recommends OSA patients have extended stay in Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) but no specific guidelines were offered on length of stay. In our own facility, no speci fic policy existed and questions were raised as to what is the best practice.

Source: Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing - July 23, 2017 Category: Nursing Authors: Esther Lee, JoAnn S. Daugherty, Ulrich Schmidt Tags: ASPAN National Conference Abstract Source Type: research