Objectives/hypothesis: To test the effect of upper airway surgery on sleep quality in adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the potential usefulness of electrocardiogram (ECG)-based cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) analysis as metrics of sleep quality.
Study design: Retrospective outcome research.
Methods: A total of 62 consecutive adult patients with OSA, consisting of 36 with successful and 26 with unsuccessful outcomes, were included in the study. Mean age was 37.7 ± 8.9 years, and body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2) ) was 26.9 ± 2.3. We compared clinical characteristics (age, BMI, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale [ESS]), sleep (sleep efficiency, stage non-rapid eye movement [N]1, N2, N3, rapid eye movement, and arousal index [ArI]), respiratory (apnea index [AI], apnea-hypopnea index [AHI], and minimum arterial oxygen saturation [SaO2 ]), and CPC (high-frequency coupling [HFC], low frequency coupling [LFC], very-low-frequency coupling, and elevated low-frequency coupling [e-LFC]) parameters between the success and nonsuccess groups before and after surgery. Surgical success was defined when the postoperative AHI was both <20 per hour and 50% of the preoperative value.
Results: Sleep quality measured by CPC analysis improved significantly (HFC, P = .001; LFC, P = .002; e-LFC, P = .003), along with parallel reduction in ESS, respiratory parameters (AHI, AI, minimum SaO2 ), and sleep fragmentation (ArI) in the group with surgical success after upper airway surgery.
Conclusions: Successful upper airway surgery can improve objective sleep quality in adult patients with OSA. CPC metrics of sleep quality are potentially useful to monitor therapeutic responses during long-term postoperative follow-up, as the ECG-based analysis is available as a standalone option outside laboratory polysomnography.
Keywords: Cardiopulmonary coupling; obstructive sleep apnea; polysomnography; sleep quality; surgery.
© 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.