Intermountain Press Release

Provo, Utah—Breathe easy. Your local hospital is safer than ever.

Utah Valley pulmonologist Doug Ross, MD, and respiratory therapist Karl Ludwig, with the cooperation of nursing staff, recently completed a three-year study on identifying and treating patients with obstructive sleep apnea or OSA prior to surgery.

They began their study after the Anesthesia department at Utah Valley Regional named undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea as one of three main causes of post-surgery cardiopulmonary arrest. "We knew we had to do something," said Ludwig. "It started out as seeing a problem and working toward a solution."

Sleep apnea is a temporary cessation of breathing during sleep, usually caused when obstructions in a person's air passage, such as a large tongue, prevent normal airflow to the lungs. Those respiratory problems are compounded under the influence of anesthetics. Prior to Ludwig and Dr. Ross' study, few protocols existed for either identifying or treating OSA prior to surgery.

After three years of research, however, Ludwig and Dr. Ross have developed both a screening system for identifying people at risk for sleep apnea prior to surgery and a treatment procedure that mitigates surgery complications for those identified. They have conducted two studies involving more than 1,000 patients, written abstracts on their findings and made multiple presentations on their work. Ludwig and Dr. Ross presented their first study on identifying sleep apnea prior to surgery to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine last summer in Salt Lake City. They are currently preparing their second study for publication, which deals with the successful use of continuous positive airway pressure technology, or CPAP, to remedy respiratory problems during surgery.

CPAP is administered through a mask, and has traditionally been used by people with OSA to facilitate sleeping at home.

Preliminary data from Ludwig and Ross' second study shows that giving CPAP treatment to OSA patients prior to surgery eliminates post-surgery respiratory complications and cuts recovery time in half.

"We all want to avoid undue complications," says Dr. Ross. "This speaks to patient safety when they're in their most vulnerable state. We're excited about it."