Sleep Apnea

To the Editor: In his Clinical Practice article (Aug. 15 issue), 1 Dr. Flemons discusses several risks associated with obstructive sleep apnea. Recent reports have revealed a number of “unexplained” postoperative cardiopulmonary arrests in surgical patients. All these patients had received parenteral narcotics or sedatives, and in all of them, obstructive sleep apnea was ultimately diagnosed. 2 Patients with obstructive sleep apnea are reportedly more sensitive to even minimal doses of sedatives or narcotics than are normal persons. It has been suggested that the administration of these drugs results in decreased pharyngeal muscle tone, which may exacerbate airway obstruction, leading to hypoxia, . . .