Diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea before surgery.

What is it about?

The paper describes the current insights in diagnostic methods to assess obstructive sleep apnea before surgery. Use of questionnaires is discussed as a way to filter patients that need a sleep study (together with its drawbacks). The advantages of treating sleep apnea before surgery is highlighted.

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Why is it important?

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea have a higher risk to develop cardiac and pulmonary complications after surgery. Also problems at initiation of anesthesia can be more problematic in cases with obstructive sleep apnea. Problems can be avoided by up front diagnosis and treatment with CPAP before surgery.

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