• Colin Suen, Jean Wong, Kahiye Warsame, Yamini Subramani, Tony Panzarella, Rida Waseem, Dennis Auckley, Rabail Chaudhry, Sazzadul Islam, and Frances Chung.
• Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, MCL 2-405, 399 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON, M5T2S8, Canada.
• BMC Anesthesiol. 2021 May 11; 21 (1): 142.

BackgroundAlthough continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the first line treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients, the perioperative adherence rate is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the perioperative adherence rate of patients with OSA with a CPAP prescription and the effect of adherence on nocturnal oxygen saturation.MethodsThis prospective cohort study included adult surgical patients with a diagnosis of OSA with CPAP prescription undergoing elective non-cardiac surgery. Patients were divided into CPAP adherent and non-adherent groups based on duration of usage (≥ 4 h/night). Overnight oximetry was performed preoperatively and on postoperative night 1 and 2 (N1, N2). The primary outcome was adherence rate and the secondary outcome was nocturnal oxygen saturation.ResultsOne hundred and thirty-two patients completed the study. CPAP adherence was 61% preoperatively, 58% on postoperative N1, and 59% on N2. Forty-nine percent were consistently CPAP adherent pre- and postoperatively. Using a linear fixed effects regression, oxygen desaturation index (ODI) was significantly improved by CPAP adherence (p = 0.0011). The interaction term CPAP x N1 was significant (p = 0.0015), suggesting that the effect of CPAP adherence varied on N1 vs preoperatively. There was no benefit of CPAP adherence on postoperative mean SpO2, minimum SpO2, and percentage of sleep duration with SpO2 < 90%. Use of supplemental oxygen therapy was much lower in the CPAP adherent group vs non-adherent group (9.8% vs 46.5%, p <  0.001).ConclusionsAmong patients with a preoperative CPAP prescription, approximately 50% were consistently adherent. CPAP adherence was associated with improved preoperative ODI and the benefit was maintained on N1. These modest effects may be underestimated by a higher severity of OSA in the CPAP adherent group and a higher rate of oxygen supplementation in the non-adherent group.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.Gov registry ( NCT02796846 ).

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