Anesthesia and Sleep Apnea can be a deadly combination. But awareness of the problems anesthesia can cause for individuals with sleep apnea undergoing surgery is not well known by many physicians. At core, anesthesia poses a danger to people with sleep apnea because it relaxes the muscles in the throat, increasing the likelihood of obstruction. Under normal circumstances, the brain would alert a person whose airway is obstructed to wake up when blood oxygen levels get dangerously low. With anesthesia, however, a person is so knocked out that they won't awaken naturally. So the key is to make sure to meet your anesthesiologist prior to going into the operating room, and working out a plan of attack.
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