Patient Safety Tip of the Week
April 3, 2012
New Risk for Postoperative Delirium: Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Our multiple previous columns on delirium (see list at the end of this column) have mentioned multiple risk factors for the development of delirium in hospitalized patients. But a new risk factor for postoperative delirium has just been uncovered: obstructive sleep apnea (Flink 2012). The authors prospectively evaluated 106 nondemented elderly patients undergoing elective knee arthroplasty for delirium and found delirium in 25% of cases. The incidence of delirium in the 15 patients who had known obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was 53%, compared with 20% in those without known OSA. In fact, in multivariate analyses, the only independent risk factor that emerged for delirium in this population was OSA. Patients with OSA were more than 4 times more likely to develop delirium. It was a well-done study in which the CAM (Confusion Assessment Method) and the DRS-R-98 (Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98) were utilized on post-op days #2 and #3 (most patients were discharged by day #3) to identify patients with delirium and measure its severity. The incidence was highest on post-op day #2 as has been seen in prior studies and two-thirds of the cases had improved by post-op day #3.
The authors readily state that this study should be “hypothesis-generating” rather than showing a definitive cause and effect relationship between OSA and delirium but the findings are nevertheless striking and thought provoking.
The authors speculate on the potential mechanisms linking OSA and delirium. Obviously hypoxemia is suspected as a major factor and they speculate it might reduce ATP and synthesis of cholinergic precursors (reduced cholinergic activity has been supported as a mechanism of delirium in research settings). The accompanying editorial (Bateman 2012) notes that patients with OSA are most vulnerable to hypoxia on postoperative nights 2 and 3. Flink and colleagues also raise the possibility that inflammatory factors might play a role. Given the slight delay in the appearance of postoperative delirium one might also wonder about the possible role that “REM rebound” might play and its relationship to both OSA and postoperative delirium.
Recently, a clinical research group in the Netherlands had developed and validated a risk model for predicting delirium in hip fracture patients (Moerman 2012). Items considered in that model included prior episodes of delirium, presence of dementia, age, clock drawing, hearing and vision impairments, problems with ADL’s, and alcohol or substance abuse. The tool was pretty good at predicting delirium in this patient population. This population was clearly different from that in the Flink study but it would be interesting to go back and see whether OSA might have been identified in the Netherlands population.
In our August 17,
2010 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “Preoperative
Consultation – Time to Change” we noted the relative ineffectiveness
of the typical preoperative assessments done today. Instead of the intense
focus on potential cardiac complications, we instead advocated for more focus
on identifying frailty and risk factors for things like postoperative delirium
and obstructive sleep apnea. Little did we know that those two might be
interrelated! Admittedly there are a whole host of risk factors for delirium
that should be considered in many patient populations. But now it makes sense
to also screen for OSA, particularly in nondemented patient cohorts about to
undergo elective surgical procedures. Screening for OSA is doubly important,
given all the attention we’ve given to managing opiate therapy in the
postoperative period (see links below).
Given the simplicity
of screening for OSA with tools like the STOP-Bang questionnaire, there
is really no good reason that such screening should not be part of the
preoperative assessment, whether being done by an anesthesiologist, internist,
hospitalist, or surgeon. It is incredible how often we send patients for
cardiac stress testing preoperatively despite lack of clearcut evidence for its
utility and cost-effectiveness in this population. Yet simple tests that can be
done in a few minutes in the office, like the STOP-Bang questionnaire or the
Timed-Up-And-Go Test (see our November 2011 What’s New in the Patient Safety
World column “Timed
Up-and-Go Test and Surgical Outcomes”), that are highly predictive of
postoperative complications are seldom part of the preoperative evaluation.
Some of our prior
columns on delirium assessment and management:
·
October 21,
2008 “Preventing
Delirium”
·
October 14,
2009 “Managing
Delirium”
·
February 10,
2009 “Sedation
in the ICU: The Dexmedetomidine Study”
·
March 31, 2009
“Screening
Patients for Risk of Delirium”
·
June 23,
2009 “More
on Delirium in the ICU”
·
January 26,
2010 “Preventing
Postoperative Delirium”
·
August 31, 2010
“Postoperative
Delirium”
·
September 2011
“Modified
HELP Helps Outcomes in Elderly Undergoing Abdominal Surgery”)
· December 2010 “The ABCDE Bundle”
·
February 28,
2012 “AACN
Practice Alert on Delirium in Critical Care”
See some of our prior columns on obstructive sleep apnea in the perioperative period:
Patient Safety Tips of the Week:
June 10, 2008 “Monitoring the Postoperative COPD Patient”
August 18, 2009 “Obstructive Sleep Apnea in the Perioperative Period”
August 17, 2010 “Preoperative Consultation – Time to Change”
July 13, 2010 “Postoperative
Opioid-Induced Respiratory Depression”
February 22, 2011 “Rethinking
Alarms”
November 22, 2011 “Perioperative
Management of Sleep Apnea Disappointing”
What’s New in the Patient Safety World columns:
July 2010 “Obstructive Sleep Apnea in the General Inpatient Population”
November 2010 “More on Preoperative Screening for Obstructive Sleep Apnea”
March 2012 “Postoperative Complications with Obstructive Sleep Apnea”
References:
Flink BJ, Rivelli SK, Cox EA, et al. Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Incidence of Postoperative Delirium after Elective Knee Replacement in the Nondemented Elderly. Anesthesiology 2012; 116(4): 788-796, April 2012.
Bateman BT, Eikermann M. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Predicts Adverse Perioperative Outcome: Evidence for an Association between Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Delirium. Anesthesiology 2012: 116(4): 753-755, April 2012.
Moerman S, Tuinebreijer WE, de Boo M, et al. Validation of
the Risk Model for Delirium in hip fracture patients. Original Research Article.
Gen Hosp Psychiatr 2012; 34(2): 153-159
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163834311003690
http://www.patientsafetysolutions.com/