Impact of obstructive sleep apnoea on postoperative outcomes of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To assess the association between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and postoperative complications in patients after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus databases were explored to identify relevant observational studies that reported incidences of OSA in CABG patients, and assessed OSA using standard objective methods such as polysomnography (PSG). The primary outcomes of interest were risk of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) and all-cause mortality. Pooled effect sizes were reported as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals.

Twelve studies were included. All studies, except one, had a prospective cohort design. CABG patients with OSA had increased risk of MACCE (OR 1.71, 95% CI: 1.16, 2.53), myocardial infarction (MI) (OR 2.21, 95% CI: 1.19, 4.13), pulmonary complications (OR 1.86, 95% CI: 1.03, 3.38), renal complications (OR 8.14, 95% CI: 2.07, 32.1), heart failure (OR 1.86, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.89) and need for revascularization (OR 2.80, 95% CI: 1.01, 7.75). However, risk of all-cause mortality (OR 1.63, 95% CI: 0.75, 3.52) was comparable in all patients.

This study showed that OSA significantly correlates with the increased risk of major adverse events. Our results indicate that recognizing and managing OSA in CABG patients is crucial for mitigating associated risks.