Abstract
Background: Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are often deemed high-risk for ambulatory surgery by the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. Despite this, nasal surgeries, commonly conducted to help treat OSA, are regularly performed. This study evaluates the rates of postoperative hospital admissions and Emergency Department visits following nasal surgery, comparing patients with and without OSA.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 383 patients who underwent open rhinoplasty, septoplasty, or septorhinoplasty over a four-year period (2015-2018), with 14% having OSA.
Results: Of 383 patients included, 53 patients had a diagnosis of OSA confirmed on sleep study. When the data was age and gender-matched, BMI and cardiovascular comorbidities remained significantly different, and pulmonary comorbidities and administration of PACU narcotics approached significance. Multivariate analysis showed significant associations between the presence of cardiovascular disease and OSA with postoperative admission and the lengths of surgery and anesthesia with postoperative ED visit. Within OSA group, there were no significant differences in AHI or oxygen nadir in those who were admitted versus not admitted.
Conclusion: BMI and cardiovascular comorbidities were associated with OSA groups. Our analysis implicates having OSA as a risk factor for post-operative admission but not ED visits.
Authors
Nam Lee, Nicole Wershoven, Trey Thompson, Emily Misch, Drew Gottman, Katherine Green, Andrew Winkler
Keywords
Obstructive sleep apnea; Nasal surgery; Septoplasty; Rhinoplasty; Ambulatory surgery; Postoperative admission
JEL Codes
I10
Publication Information
- Publication Date
- 05.10.2026
- Submission Date
- 28.09.2026
- Accepted Date
- 05.10.2026
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 2026-1
- Year
- 2026
- Pages
- 17-23
- Language
- English
- Status
- Published
- Views
- 15
- Downloads
- 0
Files
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