Transient Decrease in Quality of Sleep after Minimally Invasive Surgery: A Case Study

Abstract

Sleep condition after an operation is disturbed by the treatment and its invasiveness. However, the effect of minimally invasive operations on the sleep of patients remains unknown. We report a case study observing the sleep condition during the perioperative period of a gynecomastia-patient. Sleep estimation-data from electroencephalography (EEG) and the Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi (OSA) sleep inventory were recorded for 6 days, beginning from the night before the operation and continuing until the morning of the 5th day after surgery. EEG data showed that the rapid eye movement (REM) stage and non-REM (NREM) stage 3 were almost indiscernible on the night after the operation, whereas NREM stage 1 and the awakening stage notably increased. Preoperative sleep condition recovered after 2 days. Furthermore, scores of OSA sleep inventory decreased on the operation day and postoperative day 1. These results indicate that temporary sleep disturbance in the postoperative period might occur regardless of the invasiveness.