Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Manager's Guide to Surgery's Ambulatory Anesthesia - July 2015

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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J U LY 2 0 1 5 O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T 5 1 I n 2013, some colleagues and I published a study (osmag.net/JSK9cx) that called into question the prevailing attitude that patients with obstructive sleep apnea are never good candidates for ambulatory sur- gery. We looked at 404 OSA patients who'd had out- patient procedures over a 2-year period, and found that there hadn't been a single catastrophic compli- cation. That doesn't mean you should throw your doors open to every sleep apnea patient, but it does show that these patients can be managed safely as long as you keep these important factors in mind. 5 Keys to Managing Sleep Apnea Pre-op assessments and taking the proper precautions on the day of surgery will help keep these high-risk patients safe. Reginald F. Baugh, MD Toledo, Ohio z STARTING BLOCK Regional anesthesia avoids air- way trouble by letting patients breathe on their own. Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN 1. Many people don't know they have it. Sleep apnea is clearly under-recog- nized and the undiag- nosed patient is the one you need to worry about most — the big, heavy- set guy with a short neck and retrognathic jaw. He's never been told he has sleep apnea, but all the signs are there. The "STOPBANG" test (see "The STOPBANG Obstructive Sleep Apnea Questionnaire") requires only a couple of minutes and is a good place to start when assessing a patient's potential sleep apnea risk. But don't wait until the day of sur- gery. If the patient's sick — and sleep apnea should be considered a

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