Abstract
Patients with obstructive sleep apnea provide significant challenges to the perioperative team. This disorder is often undiagnosed and coexists with other disease processes such as hypertension, congestive heart failure, and cor pulmonale. The prevalence of obesity in American society suggests that an increasing number of patients with sleep apnea will present for surgery. During the perioperative period, life-threatening problems can occur during anesthetic induction and emergence. The pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea is reviewed here along with the anesthesia implications of this disease process. Members of the perioperative team need to be aware of the implications of sleep apnea so that surgical outcomes can be optimized.