AHI increase after Tonsillectomy

[Smiz]

HI all,

I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea after I had an AHI of 162 at a sleep study. I started using a CPAP and had a 30 day average AHI of 7.2. After about a month of using the CPAP i found time to get my tonsils removed. After my tonsillectomy my 7 day avg. AHI is 29.8. Why would this happen? I tried calling my doctor and they had no explanation.

[SleepingUgly]

How long since your tonsillectomy is it? It can take 3 months or more for things to settle down in your throat. If your surgery was recent, you could still have swelling.

Verify settings on your machine (depending what machine you have, you may have to tell it what kind of mask you're using). Check your leak rate.

[Hawthorne]

Did you have general anesthetic or local? If general, then the body is a long time recovering from that and that could be your problem.

[Smiz]

It's been a month since my surgery. The interesting thing is I feel great when I don't use the machine. Maybe I just need my settings adjusted since my airway has changed? The swelling is pretty much gone though. I was given a general anesthetic. How long does it take to recover from that? I thought it was only a day or two.

[Hawthorne]

Depending upon how long you were under, FULLY recovering from general anesthetic can take up to a year.

Everyone would be individual. I expect yours was a relatively short surgery. The surgeries I have had with general anesthetic were 3 hour surgeries each time and it took me a good year each time to get it all out of my system.

Based on my experience then, it will not be a year probably but then again, everyone's body will react differently to anesthetic.

[Julie]

Plus it's quite likely your throat was irritated from tubes being inserted at the time and may still be a bit swollen, so your regular pressure may not be as effective.

[SleepingUgly]

It is not recommended that you redo a sleep study for 3-6 months after surgery. That is because things don't completely settle down (swelling, etc.) for awhile. If it were true that everything was as it would be by 1 month, there would be no problem having a sleep study at 1 month. If you have a data capable machine, I'd still check for leaks, etc., just to rule it out.