Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Positive Airway Pressure Treatment and Postoperative Delirium

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov August 29, 2019

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common among older surgical patients, and delirium is a frequent and serious postoperative complication. Emerging evidence suggests that OSA increases the risk for postoperative delirium.

We hypothesis that OSA is an independent risk factor for postoperative delirium, and that in patients with OSA, perioperative adherence to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy decreases the incidence of postoperative delirium and its sequelae.

Observational data from existing electronic databases will be used, including over 100,000 surgical patients and
approximate 10,000 ICU admissions.

This study has been approved by the Human Research Protection Office at Washington University School of Medicine.