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Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) is a common chronic disorder and encompasses a range of diseases including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (by far the most common), and central sleep disorders (eg, ...

BACKGROUND: Diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects 2% to 7% of middle-age persons worldwide and represents a substantial health care burden. The gold standard for treating OSA in adults is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. Compliance with this treatment is especially important in OSA patients experiencing concomitant acute and chronic disease or illness, and those undergoing procedures associated with sedation, analgesia and anesthesia.OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical characteristics and management of hospitalized OSA patients in Canada.METHODS: Using the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s hospital Discharge Abstract Database (fiscal year 2006/2007), a retrospective cohort study of all acute care patients discharged with a diagnosis that included OSA was performed.RESULTS: An examination of the discharge data of 2,400,245 acute care hospital abstracts identified 8823 cases of OSA. The mean age of OSA patients was 45.7 years and 66.5% were men. The most common comorbidities in the adult OSA population were obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In adult OSA patients, the reported surgical intervention rate using uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (9.6%) was much higher than interventional CPAP therapy (4.8%).CONCLUSIONS: Only a small percentage of hospitalized OSA patients were documented as having received CPAP therapy during their stay. Issues relating to the accuracy, specificity and completeness of the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s hospital Discharge Abstract Database specific to OSA and its management were identified. Practices pertaining to the reporting, coding and management of hospitalized adult OSA patients warrant further investigation and research.

Diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea affects 2-4% of middle aged Americans and represents a substantial health care burden. Despite its prevalence, little is known about the demographic characteristics or clinical management of sleep apnea patients hospitalized for other comorbidities and surgeries. The aim of this study was to provide a broad characterization of the epidemiology of sleep apnea in hospitalized patients in the United States and to describe the trends in the management of their sleep apnea during their hospitalizations. Using the 2004 National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), a nationally representative sample of discharges from nonfederal acute care hospitals in the United States, cases of sleep apnea were obtained from hospital discharge records coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). The specific objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the prevalence of hospitalized unspecified sleep apnea individuals according to age, gender, and comorbidities; (2) estimate prevalence of the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy during hospitalization and describe those uses according to hospital ownership and size. A retrospective analysis of data of hospitalized patients with unspecified sleep apnea from the 2004 National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) was completed. In 2004, the NHDS collected data for approximately 371,000 discharges from a sample of 439 nonfederal short-stay hospitals. An estimated 34.9 million inpatients were discharged from nonfederal short-stay hospitals in 2004. Patients diagnosed with unspecified sleep apnea were identified using the International Classification of Diseases (Ninth Revision), Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code of 780.57, which, before 2005, was the sole diagnostic code under which obstructive sleep apnea was listed. A subset of these patients, those receiving CPAP therapy, was further identified using the ICD-9-CM procedural code 93.90. Review of weighted discharge data identified a total of 293,478 estimated cases of unspecified sleep apnea. Approximately 64% of these individuals were between the ages 40 and 69 years old with a gender distribution of 55.3% males. The most common diagnoses in hospitalized sleep apnea patients were morbid obesity, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, exacerbation of COPD, and pneumonia. Sleep apnea was managed through the standardized therapy, CPAP, in 5.8% of hospitalized patients and CPAP therapy was more likely to be utilized in sleep apnea patients hospitalized in a government hospital than in a for-profit hospital. In conclusion, only a small percentage (5.8%) of patients diagnosed with unspecified sleep apnea in the 2004 NHDS were provided with CPAP therapy during hospitalization. There appear to be institutional differences in the utilization of CPAP therapy in hospitals across the United States. These findings suggest that in the United States, the management of sleep apnea in hospitalized patients is deficient, and the use of CPAP therapy in the hospital warrants further investigation.

Therapeutic massage has been proven to be an effective, nonpharmacologic, alternative for managing state and trait anxiety in a variety of clinical situations. However, no controlled study has investigated this effect in an addiction treatment setting.The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of chair massage for reducing anxiety in persons participating in an inpatient withdrawal management program for psychoactive drugs.The design was a randomized, controlled clinical trial conducted from June 2008 to January 2009.Eighty-two (82) adult patients received inpatient treatment for psychoactive drug withdrawal (alcohol, cocaine, and opiates).This study was conducted at the Withdrawal Management Services at the Capital District Health Authority, Halifax, Nova Scotia.Subjects were randomly assigned to receive chair massage (n = 40) or a relaxation control condition (n = 42). Treatments were offered for 3 consecutive days. Standard counseling and pharmacologic management were also offered concurrently to patients in all conditions.The primary outcome measure was anxiety assessed using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). State and trait anxiety scores were determined immediately prior to and following each treatment intervention.Analysis of STAI scores showed a significant reduction in state and trait anxiety for both interventions (p 0.001). The magnitude in the reduction in state (p = 0.001) and trait (p = 0.045) anxiety was significantly greater in the chair massage group where the effect on state anxiety was sustained, at least in part, for 24 hours.Within the clinical context of this study, chair massage was more effective that relaxation control in reducing anxiety. Further investigation of chair massage as a potential nonpharmacologic adjunct in the management of withdrawal related anxiety is warranted.