People suffering from sleep apnea have a hard time to breathe while sleeping. Apnea is Greek for “without breath”. There could be many causes for your sleep apnea so it’s important to discuss it with your doctor to get it diagnosed. With sleep apnea, you can actually stop breathing for as long as ten seconds and it usually happens because brain signals that control breathing are interrupted or because the throat muscles relax enough that the airway narrows.
Many patients don’t even realize what is causing their symptoms and that makes it hard to diagnose. Daytime drowsiness, snoring, headaches and even a sore throat are included in the symptoms. Many people don’t even notice them and they may be just temporary.
For patients that are looking into having surgery, it can be very important to find out if sleep apnea is a problem. Perioperative sleep apnea can be a critical problem for anesthesiologists to deal with and they need to be made aware if sleep apnea is a concern.
Are You at Risk for Perioperative Sleep Apnea?
To evaluate the risk for perioperative sleep apnea, the patient should fill out a questionnaire. The anesthesiologist will talk with the patient to see if they are at risk for perioperative sleep apnea.
Because the patient is put to sleep for surgery, the throat muscles relax causing perioperative apnea to occur. This will be a major concern. If the doctor is aware of any previous problem with sleep apnea, he will monitor closely to avoid any complications.
As well as during surgery, the patient will need to be closely monitored after surgery to make sure the throat doesn’t swell and cause the breathing to stop. A Continuous Positive Air Pressure machine is designed to keep the airway open. A mask is placed over the person’s nose and oxygen is pumped directly into the airway. Due to the consistent pressure, the airway stays open and oxygen flows correctly.
If there is the slightest chance that there may be some problems with perioperative sleep apnea during surgery, the medical team will be ready to go into action. You need to be totally honest with them in your interview so that they will know what to expect if anything.