A survey on the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and difficult intubation in the elderly

Background and Objectives: Difficult intubation is one of the challenges for patients undergoing anesthesia that leads to severe complications and death. Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the factors that may be associated with difficult intubation. The present study was carried out to investigate the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and difficult intubation in the elderly. Materials and Methods: This cross- sectional study was conducted in 2015 from February to June on 175 elderly patients using convenience sampling method. In order to gather data Demographic form, Berlin questionnaire and Comark-Lehane Index were used. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 18) Statistical software and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney-u, chi-square tests and Logistic Regression. Results: The mean age and SD of samples were 69.9±9.3 years. There were 18 (26.9%) people with difficult intubation and 10 (9.3%) people with normal intubation at high risk of sleep apnea. The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between sleep apnea and difficult intubation, and the risk of sleep apnea in the elderly with difficult intubation was 3.6 times of those with normal intubation (p=0.002, OR=3.6, CI 95%= 1.5-8.9). Conclusion: There is a relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and difficult intubation in the elderly. Therefore, a screening procedure to identify the elderly at high risk of sleep apnea that are candidate for anesthesia seems to be necessary.