CPAP News Letter - Issue: 1



Greetings:

Each year the Associated Professional Sleep Societies hold a 5 day meeting. I was fortunate enough to attend the meeting just held in Seattle. The information available on all sorts of sleep related issues is fantastic. The next meeting is June 3-8, 2003 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

For the purpose of this newsletter, comments will be limited to practical issues of treating sleep apnea.

The new Fisher & Paykel Oracle Mask is getting lots of attention. This is a mouth only mask with no headgear. We have pictures of this mask on our site at http://www.cpap-pro.net/oracle.shtml. Doctors, sleep laboratorys,equipment providers, and patients are all trying to determine who would benefit from this mask. At this point we suggest that the product is most successfully used by patient who 1) have nasal blockage problems or regular mouth leak. 2) have available heated humidification. 3) strongly object to headgear. The usefulness of the Oracle may include many patients using traditional nasal masks, but for now, we think users of full face masks would most likely find the product helpful.

The new Innomed Nasal Aire http://www.cpap-pro.net/NasalAire.shtml is another new product that we are all looking carefully at. This nasal sealing device has only one small strap as a headgear. Our results indicate patients love it if it works, but about one half can't find a proper fit. Innomed is making the fitting difficult as they sell only the compete system to dealers, not just the seal. That means changing size is an expensive proposition.

Respironics has taken the successful Remstar Heated Humidifier (just for Remstar Pro, Plus, and Auto and made a version that will work with all cpap machines called the H2 Heated Humidifier. Link is http://www.cpap-pro.net/H2_Humid.shtml

The release of the new Resmed Sullivan 7 machines in the United States has been delayed pending FDA approval. In addition to being smaller, lighter and quieter, these machines feature integrated heated humidification and the ability to upgrade a standard CPAP to a auto CPAP.

At long last Medicare has improved a reasonable payment for CPAP heated humidification. This action was taken after considerable data strongly suggested that CPAP compliance was much improved when heated humidification was used. This is good news for all future CPAP patients as humidity becomes a CPAP standard.

That is it for now. Have a great month!

John