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Itamar-Medical Releases WatchPAT for Perioperative Management of Patients with Obstructive Sleep ApneaOct 15, 2010 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- In accordance with the new guidelines issued by the American Society of Anesthesiologists to improve the perioperative care and reduce the risk of adverse outcomes in patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Itamar-Medical's WatchPAT device for home sleep testing is already being used for pre-operative sleep testing. "With the new importance in anesthesiology now given to sleep testing, once again, we are glad to be the pioneers of home sleep testing in the world of surgery," said Dov Rubin, President and CEO, Itamar-Medical, in a release. "We believe that anesthesiologists everywhere will be excited about WatchPAT's diagnostic precision, ease of use, and simple connectivity into their patient records." "Patients with undiagnosed sleep apnea have a higher complication rate, longer recovery, and poorer pain control," said Marvin Tark, head of the Pain Management Section and former Chairman of Anesthesia at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta, Ga. "WatchPAT provides the information we need to monitor and manage the patient better in both the surgical and the post-operative period, offering the best possible high-quality medical care. By using WatchPAT as part of our standard preoperative procedure, we are able to reduce perioperative complications, save time and money by minimizing time spent in the recovery room, and more safely determine the course of pain management, Having reviewed the medical evidence behind WatchPAT, I now recommend it as the sleep test method of choice for all of our surgical patients." WatchPAT offers the ability to analyze the six channels of tamper-proof raw sleep-related data and manually override the suggested automatic analysis in a manner similar to standard PSG recordings. WatchPAT is a portable device providing Apnea-Hypopnea Index, Respiratory Disturbance Index, and Oxygen Desaturation Index based on actual sleep time and sleep states without a cumbersome nasal cannula, awkward belt around the chest, and EEG/EOG electrodes or other devices sticking to the head. Itamar Medical is a medical technology company utilizing Peripheral Arterial Tone signal technology and applications. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) |