A systematic review of the feasibility and safety of day case nasal
and/or palatopharyngeal surgery in patients with obstructive sleep
apnoea
Abstract
Introduction Recent guidelines suggest obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is
not an absolute contraindication for same day discharge following
surgery. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the
feasibility and safety of day case nasal and/or palatopharyngeal surgery
in patients with OSA. Methods We performed a systematic search of
PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane library. Quality assessment of included
studies was done. The protocol of this systematic review was registered
with PROSPERO (CRD42021273451). Results A total of 1836 patients from
ten observational studies were included. There were 268 (15.4%) nasal
surgeries, 738 palatopharyngeal surgeries (42.4%) and 735 (42.2%)
combined nasal and palatopharyngeal surgery. The majority of patients
had moderate to severe OSA. A total of 860 patients (49.8%) were
successfully discharged as day cases. There were no standard criteria
for daycase surgery. Post-anaesthetic respiratory events were reported
in 86/1750 (4.9%) patients. Oxygen desaturation was the most common
respiratory event (83.7%, n = 72). There was no mortality reported.
Conclusion Current data suggests day surgery is feasible in carefully
selected patients with OSA undergoing nasal and/or palatopharyngeal
surgery. Further well-designed prospective studies with an emphasis on
the systematic assessment of complications are required to establish
safety and daycase criteria.