Why use bipap instead of cpap?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
king_alvaro
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Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by king_alvaro » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:08 pm

I have noticed many users use bipap. I noticed that it is more often on the users that have had sleep apnea for many years. So, does this means that after years of using cpap, the condition worsens and you know have to use bipap. Or is it because the pressure increases after many years and it is more comfortable to use bipap.

I am 28 years old and use an average pressure of 8, I am slim and healthy. So, in ten years what could be my pressure at?

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LSAT
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Re: Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by LSAT » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:10 pm

It's normally for people that require very high pressures. Your 8 is very low.

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Suddenly Worn Out

Re: Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by Suddenly Worn Out » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:49 pm

king_alvaro wrote:I have noticed many users use bipap. I noticed that it is more often on the users that have had sleep apnea for many years. So, does this means that after years of using cpap, the condition worsens and you know have to use bipap. Or is it because the pressure increases after many years and it is more comfortable to use bipap.

I am 28 years old and use an average pressure of 8, I am slim and healthy. So, in ten years what could be my pressure at?
Bipap seems to be the only way a lot of people who need to use higher pressures can do so, without the side effect profile of straight CPAP. I can tolerate straight pressures (CPAP) up to 10. Beyond 10, unless I use APAP, I get side effects that I cant tolerate. And I hate to say it that APAP does not seem to work that great for me anymore, because my max pressures have pulled away from my minimum of 10 so much much.

If I could raise my APAP minimum pressure to say, 12 or 13 without the side effects, Id be fine and would not need the bipap Im getting. But I cant, Ive tried multiple times.

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Pugsy
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Re: Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by Pugsy » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:00 pm

king_alvaro wrote:I am 28 years old and use an average pressure of 8, I am slim and healthy. So, in ten years what could be my pressure at?
Stay slim and healthy and there is a good chance that in 20 years your pressure will still be 8 cm....
There is no way to know what you will need later on in life.
It is not a given that pressure needs increase with age. I have a family friend who has been on cpap machine since 1997....he uses the same pressure now as he did when he started and it is a regular cpap machine. Nothing fancy. He is 78 years old now I think. Not a skinny man but not really obese either, kind of normal size.

It is not a given that pressure needs increase with weight gain but it might be a distinct contributing factor though. It all depends on the airway structure itself and how it responds to aging process along with any weight gain or loss.

In 20 years...there's no telling what new ways of treating OSA there will be...the machines might even be extinct dinosaurs.

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Kiralynx
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Re: Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by Kiralynx » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:51 pm

I started with Bipap.

Prior to my titration, I made an appointment at the sleep lab to try on masks and find one that would work for me, since I knew from reading this Forum that the mask is one of the primary keys to making this therapy work.

When we went to test the masks under pressure, I could not, absolutely could NOT, breathe out against whatever pressure he was using.

So, he switched it over to bilevel pressures, and I was able to find a good mask, in fact, the one I used for the first six months, and which is still a favorite mask.

I was titrated bilevel, and then they looked at the fact that I had buckets of centrals, and decided to put me on an ASV machine.

It worked great for me -- I was sleeping the night through on it by the end of two weeks.

My pressures weren't set correctly for the first 10 or so days... but I checked my readouts via my software, and was able to discuss the issue with my RT and my doctor, and we changed the pressures to the ones I am using today, 3.5 years later.

So bilevel is not necessarily for people with high pressures.

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robysue
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Re: Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by robysue » Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:40 pm

I was switched from APAP/CPAP about three months into therapy because I was still dealing with significant aerophagia issues that were causing severe problems with my getting to sleep and staying asleep. My problems were at relatively low pressures. And even today, if my IPAP/EPAP runs at 8/6 for significant periods during the night, I'll likely have a bad case of "basket ball in the tummy"

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Catnapper
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Re: Why use bipap instead of cpap?

Post by Catnapper » Tue May 01, 2012 7:41 am

The bipap is very comfortable to use. The inhale pressure is higher than the exhale pressure (2 blowers in the machine) so the effect is more like normal breathing. Although there is pressure against the exhale, in comparison it feels, as Rested Gal used to say, as if the tube is empty.

So, you can see that for higher pressure requirements, bipap makes using airway pressure easier. For some people, maybe not needing high inhale pressures, but with other issues, it also makes use of xpap possible and easier. For me, I struggled with cpap and breathing against pressure so that I had difficulty sleeping. Once I switched to bipap, I was able to sleep better. In my sleep study, they found that as the pressure increased to 13, I woke up every time.

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