Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious health issue affecting more than one billion people worldwide. Although continuous positive airway pressure is the mainstay for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea, hypoglossal nerve stimulation is a surgical option for patients who are unable to tolerate or adhere to this therapy. As more hypoglossal nerve stimulators are implanted, these patients will present with increasing frequency for medical procedures requiring general anesthesia or deep sedation. We describe our experience with one such patient and hope this information can be used to develop future guidelines to aid in the anesthetic management of these patients.
Keywords: alveolar hypoventilation; central alveolar hypoventilation; continuous positive airway pressure (cpap); hypoglossal nerve stimulator; implantable medical device; obstructive sleep apnea (osa); perioperative evaluation.
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