Flow limitations – how much is too much?

hegel wrote:I've never understood what "rera" is or means. any help?

Respiratory effort related arousal, defined as:

-Sequence of breaths lasting at least 10 seconds
- Increased respiratory effort or flattening of the pressure waveform
- Leading to arousal from sleep
- Does not meet criteria for apnea or hypopnea.

According to the recommended titration guidelines posted in the stickies, pressure would be raised for any interval no shorter than 5 minutes in which 5 or more Rera's are observed in adult patients. I believe our machines are much more aggressive than this, at least in the sense of the intial pressure increase which isn't always a full 1.0 cm. Someone please correct me if I am mistaken. Of course, this is the point of auto therapy...to prevent things before they happen. The question is do we really know what was going to happen. I believe this is what the poster is looking into. Just how aggressive does she want to be in making settings to prevent/reduce flow limitations.

Best,

Mike