Amar View Cautions

Well, untreated OSA is known to be related to glaucoma for starters, and very many people these days are on Cpap, with eye related dryness, etc... so I imagine the surgeon is familiar with the subject.

I doubt that it has anything to do specifically with the Amara View. CPAP increases pressure in areas of the face and that might impact eye pressure. Anyone that cannot remove a mask by themselves could have a problem with any FFM.

Any treatment has the risk of some harm, especially with certain patients.
The company is merely covering their ample cabooses.
Use your own judgement to weigh REALISTIC risk vs benefit.

Other masks have similar cautions. The Wisp nasal mask advises you contact your physician if you experience dry eyes, eye pain, eye infections or blurred vision. And the AirFit P10 nasal pillows cautions that the mask may not be suitable for those prone to aspiration.

There may be any number of ways that particular masks may be more prone to cause problems for the eyes or potential aspiration. And anyone who cannot remove any mask for themselves is likely to be a high risk using it unsupervised.

And as chunkyfrog said, they do have to cover themselves. With that in mind, I'm surprised there aren't more warnings!

curems wrote:And the AirFit P10 nasal pillows cautions that the mask may not be suitable for those prone to aspiration.

Huh? I guess this covers "learning something new every day". CYAing for sure. I'm surprised there aren't more warnings as well.

Lucyhere wrote:

curems wrote:And the AirFit P10 nasal pillows cautions that the mask may not be suitable for those prone to aspiration.

Huh? I guess this covers "learning something new every day". CYAing for sure. I'm surprised there aren't more warnings as well.

I would suspect that any cpap usage might trigger this warning and I'm surprised I haven't seen it more often. Thinking that with a nasal mask if you are a mouth breather or feel you are having trouble breathing for any reason you may try to gasp air through your mouth, it could well cause aspiration of any secretions (saliva, mucus, etc.) There is a relationship between GERD and OSA (at least half of patients with OSA also had GERD according to a study from 2010 on the NIH website) although that relationship is not clear (at least according to that study in 2010). Personally, my doctors believe GERD plays a role in some of my breathing problems with aspiration from GERD causing irritation in my lungs (particularly after finding my lungs looking like hamburger meat during a chronic bronchitis episode with no other cause). So, I can understand this warning and also see why it may not be as obvious that there could be such a problem. Certainly not as obvious as the "Caution: Contents may be hot." warning on a cup of coffee.

The CYA aspect of these warnings actually makes me wonder why they don't have a warning on all of them that says "Use of this device may cause injury or death" just like medications do. I have actually seen medication inserts that list things as ridiculous as a common illness or injury as a side effect just because it happened to one person during the course of the study. And I find it funny that my EpiPen says that a side effect of using it may be anxiety - somehow I don't think the epinephrine is necessarily the cause of anxiety following a potential anaphylactic shock reaction.

I'm not sure how it could cause glaucoma. I have glaucoma and I'm going blind, it's terrible.
the problem with the amara is the gel tears after a couple of months. does it give better sleep than other masks, possibly?

I'm leaning toward getting a simplus exchanged for my comfort gel.

curems - I found it interesting what you said about the GERD and OSA. There is also a connection between GERD, LPR and UARS. I have UARS and one of the issues I have is that the pressure buildup in my esophagus when I have an obstruction creates a vacuum effect lower down, causing stomach contents to be sucked up into my throat. So I am new to CPAP, waiting for a FFM and hoping the CPAP can solve my nighttime LPR issues.At first they thought GERD and LPR could cause sleep apnes, but most studies now are showing that it is the apnea that causes the GERD.