Obstructive Sleep Apnea May Raise Post-Op Heart Risk

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition in which the soft tissues of the throat relax and narrow the airways during sleep, may raise the risk of developing heart problems after surgery, according toresearch published this week inJAMA. In OSA, breathing stops and starts multiple times during sleep, resulting in snoring, gasping for air, poor sleep quality, morning headaches, daytime fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.The study, led by Matthew T. V. Chan, Ph.D., M.B.B.S., of the Chinese University of Hong Kong included 1,218 patients aged 45 years or older who had abdominal, vascular, or major orthopedic surgeries and were at risk for post-surgery heart-related complications. The patients underwent sleep studies at home or in the hospital the night before their procedures.Although none of the patients had been diagnosed with OSA previously, the sleep studies revealed that 67.6% of them had the condition. Among all patients, 11.2% had a severe form of OSA in which their breathing stopped and started at least 30 times during the night.In the 30 days after their surgeries, 21.7% of the participants with OSA developed heart and blood vessel complications, such as injury to their heart muscles, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation (an irregular, fluttering heartbeat), and thromboembolism (clots that block blood vessels). Only 14.2% of those without OSA developed these complications. This represents a 50% greater risk in people with OSA, regardless of the...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: anesthesia cardiovascular disease heart problems JAMA Matthew Chan obstructive sleep apnea OSA sleep problems surgery Source Type: research