Abstract
Background
A plausible mechanism explaining how obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) triggers gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) through hiatal hernia (HH) has been proposed but also ignored in clinical practice. We sought to determine if there were differences in the prevalence of OSA between patients undergoing redo-HH repair and a matched cohort undergoing primary HH repair.
Methods
After IRB approval, we conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study. A prospectively maintained database was queried to retrieve clinical information of all the patients who underwent HH repair by a foregut surgeon between September 2016 and July 2023. The first group included patients who underwent redo-HH repair due to HH recurrence, and the second group included patients who underwent primary HH repair. Matching was performed in a 1:2 ratio using a propensity-score method based on age, sex, body mass index (BMI), history of chronic respiratory conditions other than OSA, history of smoking, and alcohol abuse.
Results
During the study period, 63 patients underwent redo-HH repair, and 370 underwent primary HH repair. After matching, 57 patients in the redo-HH repair and 114 in the primary HH repair were included, and all covariates showed adequate balance (Table 1). Patients undergoing redo-HH repair had a slightly higher prevalence of OSA compared to those who underwent primary repair (22.8% [CI95:11.91-33.7%] vs. 14.0% [CI95:7.7-20.4%], χ2 = 2.076, p=0.150).
Conclusion
Despite not reaching statistical significance, a relatively higher prevalence of OSA among patients undergoing redo-HH was found. Our study was limited by the retrospective design and inability to characterize the severity of OSA as well as patient compliance to treatment. Future prospective studies assessing this potential causality should be undertaken.