Use of a home positive airway pressure device during intraoperative monitored anesthesia care for outpatient surgery

Perioperative positive airway pressure (PAP) is recommended by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for patients with obstructive sleep apnea, but a readily available and personalized intraoperative delivery system does not exist. We present the successful use of a patient’s own nasal PAP machine in the operating room during outpatient foot surgery which required addition of a straight adaptor for oxygen delivery and careful positioning of the gas sampling line to permit end-tidal carbox dioxide monitoring. Home PAP machines may provide a potential alternative to more invasive methods of airway management for patients with obstructive sleep apnea under moderate sedation.