Anesthesiology
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Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an independent risk factor for difficult and/or impossible mask ventilation during anesthesia induction. Postural change from supine to sitting improves nocturnal breathing in patients with OSA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of patient position on collapsibility of the pharyngeal airway in anesthetized and paralyzed patients with OSA. The authors tested the hypothesis that the passive pharynx is structurally less collapsible during sitting than during supine posture. ⋯ Postural change from supine to sitting significantly improves collapsibility of pharyngeal airway in anesthetized and paralyzed patients with OSA.
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Good postoperative recovery is increasingly recognized as an important outcome after surgery. The authors created a new Post-operative Quality Recovery Scale (PQRS) that tracks multiple domains of recovery from immediate to long-term time periods in patients of varying ages, languages, and cultures. ⋯ The scores on the PQRS demonstrated an improvement over time, consistent with an expected recovery after surgery and anesthesia, and an ability to discriminate between individuals. Many patients had incomplete recovery by the third postoperative day.