Beyond surgical cure for obstructive sleep apnea: The impact of surgical management on quality of life

Objective: Polysomnographic (PSG) measures are unable to capture all outcomes for surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We evaluate quality of life outcomes in patients who undergo site-specific surgery for sleep apnea regardless of surgical cure. Design: Retrospective phone survey of patients diagnosed with OSA by PSG. All patients underwent sitespecific sleep surgery. Post-operative PSG were obtained to assess surgical cure in addition to quality of life variables using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and standardized quality of life questionnaire assessing twelve parameters. Setting: Academic practice Main outcome measures: AHI, LO2sat, ESS, CPAP, Hrs/night of sleep, tolerability of CPAP, standardized quality of life questionnaire assessing twelve parameters. Results: Forty-five patients underwent both preoperative and postoperative polysomnography. Twentythree patients obtained a surgical cure with greater than fifty percent reduction in AHI and with AHI less than twenty. Average preoperative ESS scores were 13, post operative ESS scores were 6 for patients with surgical cure and 7 for patients who were not surgically cured. Standardized questionnaire results demonstrate a statistically significant improvement on all twelve QOL parameters. Conclusion: Quality of life parameters may be improved in patients with site-specific sleep surgery regardless of objective surgical cure by AHI measurements.