Sleep disturbances after cardiac surgery with or without elevated S100B levels.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate sleep disturbances of cardiac surgery patients with or without elevated S100B levels.

Methods And Results: Twenty-two patients with serum S100B > 0.3 microg/l (study group) 12 hours after cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass and 23 patients with serum S100B < 0.3 (control group) were investigated in a prospective study. They were evaluated with the use of objective sleep tests. Cardiopulmonary bypass has negatively affected the sleep characteristics in the postoperative period for both groups. Maintenance wakefulness test, total sleep time, total activity score and sleep efficiency scores were significantly shorter in the study group in the postoperative period. Sleep latency, percentage of wakefulness after sleep onset, daytime napping episodes and total nap duration in the same period were significantly higher than in the control group.

Conclusion: Cardiac surgery affects a patient's sleep characteristics. Patients with elevated S100B values have more sleep disturbances after cardiac surgery than patients with normal S100B values.