AHI after surgery

[Nathan C. Morales]

Hi,

This is my AHI after an elbow surgery. I was on Norco.



Was it the drugs that did this or the trauma? Both?

I've never had numbers this bad before.

[Wulfman...]

Probably either or both. I'd put my money on the drugs, first.

The date on the report is about a week ago. Has there been any change since then?


Den

.

[OkyDoky]

You didn't say how long after surgery but I would suspect you are seeing effects of narcotics and possibly anesthesia medications. Narcotics can produce slow shallow breathing. If so, It should wear off with time and decreased usage. Discuss with your surgeon if you are concerned or monitor and see if it decreases.

[HairyReasoner]

After researching a similar spike in AHI that I experienced after having a colonoscopy under Propofol, I read something that indicated many general anesthetics will have the lingering effect of increasing REM sleep for a while afterward. Many people with apnea are most prone to them during REM sleep. Propofol is supposed to have less of this effect then other anesthetics, but I still noticed about six times my usual AHI the first night, 3 times the second night, and 2 times the third night. Last night (the fourth night) seemed back to normal. It seems that since your surgery was a week ago, your AHI numbers should be returning to normal--although you may have had a much deeper anesthetic than I did, so it might take a bit longer than for me.

[Nathan C. Morales]

This was the day after my surgery.

After a spell of post-surgery-insomnia, my sleep (and AHI) returned to normal.