Preoperative Differences Between Male and Female Patients With Sleep Apnea

Objectives/Hypothesis To evaluate the differences between female and male patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in the preoperative period. Study Design Nonrandomized cross‐sectional study. Methods An analysis of 686 patients (111 women and 575 men) with OSAS was completed. Multivariate modeling techniques were employed to correlate gender with the preoperative respiratory disturbance index (RDI), apnea index (AI), hypopnea index (HI), body mass index (BMI), age, and initial symptoms. Results At presentation, the male patients were significantly younger and had a lower BMI and a higher RDI and AI than the female patients. For the entire OSAS population studied, the RDI increased as the BMI increased (correlation coefficient [r] = 0.35, P =