Obstructive Sleep Apnea Is Not Associated with Higher Health Care Use after Colonoscopy under Conscious Sedation

The use of sedation allows medical procedures to be performed outside the operating room while ensuring patient comfort and a controlled environment to increase the yield of the procedure. There is concern about a higher risk of adverse events with use of sedation in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

We aimed to determine if the presence of obstructive sleep apnea increased the risk of hospitalization and/or health care use after patients received moderate conscious sedation for an elective, ambulatory colonoscopy.

We conducted a retrospective case-control database and chart review study. We compared hospital admissions, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and emergency room visits at 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (n = 3,860) and without obstructive sleep apnea (n = 2,374) who had undergone an elective, ambulatory colonoscopy with sedation.

We found no significant differences in hospital admissions, ICU admissions, or emergency room visits between the two groups at any time point within the 30 days following the procedures. In a sensitivity analysis in which we compared 827 individuals with polysomnographically confirmed sleep apnea with control subjects, there was still no difference in hospital admissions, ICU admissions, or emergency room visits in the 30 days after receiving sedation for the procedure. Outcomes were not different in individuals with various severities of obstructive sleep apnea.

The presence of obstructive sleep apnea was not associated with increased early hospital admissions, ICU admissions, or emergency room visits after colonoscopy with sedation.