Sleep study indices and early post-tonsillectomy outcomes

Objectives: To investigate the relationships between preoperative sleep study findings of children undergoing adenotonsillectomy anesthesia emergence time, recovery room time, and length of stay. Study design: Retrospective case series with chart review. Setting: Tertiary care children's hospital. Subjects and methods: All children aged 1–17 years who had undergone adenotonsillectomy between 2013 and 2016 were included. Apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), central apnea index (CAI), oxygen saturation nadir, and end-tidal carbon dioxide were compared with the in-operating room times, recovery room time, and length of stay. Results: Three hundred and fourteen patients with a mean age of 6.67 (95% CI 6.25–7.09) years were included. Mean AHI was 9.14 (95% CI 7.33–10.95), mean CI was 0.88 (95% CI 0.50–1.26), mean oxygen saturation nadir was 82.9% (95% CI 81.41–84.32), mean end-tidal carbon dioxide was 50.3 (95% CI 49.39–51.15). Mean emergence time was 16 min (95% CI 15:11–17:13 min), recovery room time was 66 min (95% CI 1:00–1:11 h), and length of stay was 25.7 h (95% CI 21:43–30:00 h). When controlled for age, gender and BMI, linear regression showed that children with a higher AHI had a significantly longer operating room and operative times (p < 0.001), emergence time (p < 0.001) and length of stay (p = 0.01). CAI was related to shorter total operating room times (p = 0.03). AHI, oxygen saturation nadir, CAI and end-tidal carbon dioxide were not associated with recovery room time. Conclusion: Preoperative sleep study indices are associated with longer in-operating room times and length of stay, and can be useful in planning operating room and hospital flow.