Aerophagia; Better, Same, or Worse on BiPAP

krousseau · Post by **krousseau** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:06 am

I had been thinking BiPAP would help aerophagia-now I'm not so sure.

If aerophagia occurs predominately during exhalation-I'm going to be on a higher expiratory pressure than I am now. Any degree of aerophagia that occurs during inhalation is going to occur under significantly higher pressure too.

During my visit to Stanford both physicians said, "It may help."; "It may not help."; "It may make it worse." So presumably aerophagia has some "personal idiosyncracies" that vary from person to person in how we respond to PAP treatment.

I'm trying for a three response poll on the question, "Is your aerophagia better, worse, the same? The group of people who I'm looking for is people who:

1. Started having aerophagia when they started CPAP or
2. Already had aerophagia and it got worse after starting CPAP
3. Switched to BiPAP

The sample may be small-I'm not doing rigorous research here.

Please list other things you do to manage your aerophagia in a post to this thread.

track · Post by **track** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:48 am

My guess is very few people are going to fit the criteria for answering this poll. You must have experienced aerophagia, used cpap and used bipap. I fail on the bipap criteria as I am sure many others do and those few that have used both cpap and bipap might not suffer from aerophagia

krousseau · Post by **krousseau** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:17 pm

Yes-you are right I edited the original to spell that out more clearly.

Bamalady · Post by **Bamalady** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:26 pm

No BiPAP, but I went from straight CPAP to an Auto with AFLEX, and that has helped with the aerophagia. My pressure on CPAP was only 8, but that was more than enough.

Maryb · Post by **Maryb** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:01 pm

Bipap helped my aerophagia.
I was on autopap (ResMed S8 Vantage) for about 8 months and once I got my mouth leaks under control by using the Hybrid, I started getting aerophagia. I first tried dropping my pressure which helped a little. Then I went to Bipap. I still have some aerophagia but it's way less than it used to be which I credit to the Bipap (which is more comfortable on the exhale too).

Maryb

khvn · Post by **khvn** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:23 am

Krousseau, I have no experience with bipap, but logically, it should help with aerophagia better than c/apap solely on the virtue that you are guaranteed to always be able to exhale at EPAP which supposedly provides a softer setting than possible with c/apap.

Maybe the fly in the ointment here is that, if I understand correctly, you have to go with a higher setting on a bipap? But why would you? I'm scratching my head at this. Maybe it's your new prescription?

krousseau · Post by **krousseau** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:37 pm

Yes-I had a BiPAP titration-the new numbers are beyond what I expected. The flip side is the levels do justify using the BiPAP so Medicare & insurance will pay. I thought I'd be paying for a BiPAP trial out of pocket.

CompuTech007 · Post by **CompuTech007** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:09 pm

Going from CPAP to my APAP made an amazing difference in this as my pressure is 14. The constant pressure with the CPAP after ramp up was horrible. I was bloated, face was puffy, etc. Not a good time at all.

EdAPAP · Post by **EdAPAP** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 7:32 pm

BiPAP made a big difference for me. I used a Auto M with A-Flex for five weeks with max pressure of 18. I switched to an Auto Bi-PAP with C-Flex a couple weeks ago set for fixed pressures (non-auto mode) of 10 cm exhalation and 17 cm inhalation and it is much more comfortable than the APAP. Much less hyperventilation and bloating.

Humidifier

Additional Comments: Pressure 11-15, Humidifer 3, CFLEX 3, Using Pur-Sleep Peace

Mask

Additional Comments: Strictly a side sleeper

Aerophagia; Better, Same, or Worse on BiPAP

Is your aerophagia better, worse, or the same?

Aerophagia; Better, Same, or Worse on BiPAP

aerophagia