question about central sleep apena

i went for a sleep study 2 years ago and I found out that I have Complex sleep apena which means I have OSA as well as CSA Central sleep apena my doctor told me if I lose enough weight there is a good I will get rid of the OSA but does this mean I will have central sleep apena for the rest of my life and have to use my BIPAP machine.

I'll answer this with the following facts learned here:

1. Losing weight is by no means guaranteed to eliminate OSA. There's many people here with OSA that are rail-thing. SOME people have seen their OSA get WORSE after losing weight. It depends on the structural problem. Of course, losing weight, if overweight, is always a good idea (says the fat man)
2. Your CSA could be caused by a problem in the brain that makes you sensitive to the pressure used to treat the OSA. This is especially true if you're pressures are towards the high end (but that does not mean everyone with higher pressures gets CSA)
3. OR your CSA could be completely unrelated, and might continue even if your OSA is resolved.

In short, there's no way for anyone here to predict what will happen in your case. Sorry!

I would suggest you join the group (if you haven't yet), fill out the profile, and tell us a little more about your settings, etc. But regardless I don't think we can predict the chances of this happening...

Hi, It's nice that you have an optimistic MD, but studies show that the chances of not needing cpap at all for OSA are not terrific. A few people manage, but nothing even close to the majority. However, losing weight is always a good idea so why not try it. As to the CSA's, they're generated by neurological issues, so I wouldn't count on your not needing bipap if you lose weight, but there are new fixes coming out all the time in technology, so if they can get a better handle on CSA at all, or if they can make a better, cheaper, lighter bipap, you could get lucky, but again I wouldn't expect a lot by next week.

springman wrote:i went for a sleep study 2 years ago and I found out that I have Complex sleep apena which means I have OSA as well as CSA Central sleep apena my doctor told me if I lose enough weight there is a good I will get rid of the OSA but does this mean I will have central sleep apena for the rest of my life and have to use my BIPAP machine.

You have two issues with sleep apnea. The obstructive part comes from a collapsing airway and causes an inability to inhale - an OSA. Sometimes, excess weight contributes to this condition and weight loss helps. So losing weight will improve you obstructive apnea condition. Remember that even very thin people have OSA so there may be some residual OSA events even with weight loss.

The central events, CSAs, result from a failure in your respiratory control centers that causes you to just stop breathing. Your airway in that case remains open but you stop breathing.

You mention a BiPap machine that you currently use. If it is a Respironics Series 50 or 60 machine, it will treat the obstructive events but will not treat central events. If your central events are frequent enough to require treatment, then a different type of machine is needed to treat them.

It will be helpful if you could post your equipment by selecting from those shown in the User Control Panel. It would also be helpful to post some information from your sleep study showing your AHI nmbers, the OSA numbers, and the CSA numbers.

Welcome to the group.

[quote="springman"]i went for a sleep study 2 years ago and I found out that I have Complex sleep apena which means I have OSA as well as CSA Central sleep apena my doctor told me if I lose enough weight there is a good I will get rid of the OSA but does this mean I will have central sleep apena for the rest of my life and have to use my BIPAP machine. I am currently using the PR System one Phililips responices auto Advanced SV Bipap machine with Bi-flex

If your central sleep apnea is ONLY caused by the pressure that is used to treat the obstructive sleep apnea...AND IF you can get to the point that you no longer have the obstructive sleep apnea needing pressure to hold the airway open...then you might be able to not have to use the ASV machine that you are using now.

Lot of big IFs though. Losing weight doesn't always mean that the obstructive sleep apnea caused by the collapse of the airway tissues will go away. Remember that skinny people have OSA too...and skinny people have CompSA too.

It never hurts to lose excess weight though and it wouldn't be impossible to have the results you want...not a certainty though.
You would need a follow up sleep study after the weight loss is completed for confirmation that you no longer have apneas of any kind that warrant the use of the machine.