Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Elective Orthopaedic Surgery

March 8, 2018 updated by: Victor Hugo Hernandez, University of Miami

Effects of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Elective Orthopaedic Surgery

Demand for Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) and Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA) is increasing steadily and is projected to continue trending upwards in the coming years. Concomitant with that trend is the increase in prevalence of obesity. Obesity serves as a common risk factor for osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea and medical complications.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is defined as episodes of obstructive apneas and hypopneas during sleep, with daytime somnolence. It occurs commonly in obese, middle age and elderly men and has an estimated prevalence of 5% - 9%.

Pre-operative screening for elective surgical procedures is a critical component of a successful surgical outcome. Patients with medical comorbidities ideally will undergo medical treatment or optimization to minimize the risk peri-operatively and post-operatively. Obstructive sleep apnea has been shown in numerous studies to be a risk factor for cardiopulmonary complications following surgery. The contributing factors include alterations in REM sleep post-operatively and opioid induced respiratory suppression post-operatively.

The STOP-BANG patient questionnaire is a validated patient survey that uses both objective and subjective data to screen patients for their risk of OSA. The sensitivity of the STOP-BANG questionnaire for moderate-to-severe OSA has been estimated as high as 97.74%. Authors have also shown that higher STOP-BANG scores are independently associated with increased risk for post-operative complication.

Other authors have utilized similar pre-operative questionnaires to screen for occult pulmonary disease in patients scheduled for elective joint arthroplasty. They found a slightly increased incidence of OSA in this population as compared with the national average, over 50% of which were previously undiagnosed.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists task force on perioperative management of patients with OSA published extensive guidelines aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality. Improved diagnosis pre-operatively could aid in proper compliance with these guidelines. These recommendations include preferential use of regional analgesia, reduction in systemic opioids, monitoring of oxygen saturation and nonsupine posture.

The mainstay of treatment for OSA is a positive pressure airway device such as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) or in severe cases Nasal Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation (NIPPV). Post-operatively continuation of these treatments in patients with known OSA is often recommended. Some authors have demonstrated reductions in Apnea-Hypopnea Index postoperatively through the use of CPAP.

However, a recent meta-analysis evaluating the effect of pre-operative or post-operative CPAP in patients with OSA concluded that the use of CPAP did not reduce post-operative adverse events.

Given the projected increase in demand for joint arthroplasty, the ever-increasing incidence of obesity, the ambiguity surrounding the topic and the potential to clinically impact post-operative morbidity, mortality and health care costs, shows the need for further studies.

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Florida
      • Miami, Florida, United States, 33136
        • University of Miami Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • > 18 years of age
  • Have signed the written informed consent form
  • STOP-BANG score greater than or equal to 5

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients not fluent in the language of the informed consent form (English, Spanish, Creole)
  • Prisoners
  • Pregnancy
  • Reported to have mental illness or belonging to a vulnerable population
  • Patients with previous diagnosis and treatment of Obstructive sleep apnea

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Patients in this arm will proceed through the current standard of care for pre-operative screening performed by either the patient's primary care physician or the "pre-operative" anesthesia clinic which screens patients prior to total knee or total hip arthroplasty.
Experimental: Intervention
Patients in this arm will be referred to the Sleep Medicine clinic at the University of Miami Hospital for additional testing and evaluation for obstructive sleep apnea. If they are successfully diagnosed, they will receive appropriate treatment and any interventions for the peri-operative period as recommended by the pulmonary medicine team.
Patients randomized to the intervention arm will be referred to the sleep medicine specialists for evaluation. All of their recommendations will be followed if indicated.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Post Operative Complications both acute and short term
Time Frame: 90 days
The investigators will assess if screening and subsequent treatment for obstructive sleep apnea reduces the incidence of unplanned admission to the intensive care unit, post operative delirium, post operative hypoxia necessitating supplemental oxygen, myocardial infarction as measured by objective measures such as troponin levels and EKG changes and thromboembolism. The incidence of any one of these factors is relatively low. Therefore the investigators will aggregate them as the number of subjects needed to asses them individually would be too large.
90 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Financial Impact
Time Frame: 90 days
Readmission Rate
90 days
Financial Impact
Time Frame: 30 days
Length of inpatient stay postoperatively
30 days
Financial Impact
Time Frame: 90 days
Discharge location: Home versus skilled nursing facility versus inpatient rehabilitation versus long term care facility versus other
90 days
Functional Outcomes
Time Frame: 90 days
Oxford Hip/Knee Score measured in units of the scale
90 days
Functional Outcomes
Time Frame: 90 days
Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index measured in units of the scale, WOMAC
90 days
Functional Outcomes
Time Frame: 90 days
Harris Hip/Knee Score measured in units of the scale
90 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 8, 2018

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

February 8, 2018

Study Completion (Anticipated)

February 8, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 7, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 23, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

May 25, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 9, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 8, 2018

Last Verified

March 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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