Air Curve 10 S Bipap vs VAUTO

I have a Air Curve 10 S Bipap.

Initially Medicare only approved a Cpap but My doctor documented that I cannot tolerate Cpap and asked me what kind of machine I like. Instead of Aircurve VAuto I said S10.

My Sleep Lab titration is 16. Based on that they gave me Aircurve 10S bipap with Ipap 20 and epap 16 settings. Air was going to my stomach until I reduced it to Ipap 18 and epap 15. What am I missing not having the VAuto?

I must add that at 18 Ipap and 15 Epap numbers AHI are not very good 7 Friday and 15 last night. Raising Ipap make air go to my stomach because of Hital hernia prevents the sphincter between Esophagus and stomach from fully closing.

DrA wrote:AHI are not very good 7 Friday and 15 last night

What is the breakdown of that AHI into each category?
Central/Clear Airway index
Obstructive Apnea Index
Hyponea Index
We need to know each category to best help with evaluation.
Are you using the software that is available to see each category along with when the various events occurred throughout the night?

DrADrA wrote:What am I missing not having the VAuto?

You are missing the ability to perhaps use less pressure for part of the night and letting the machine auto adjust up to higher only if needed. With the fixed pressures you have to use the higher pressures all night which as you already found out can make the air in the stomach (aerophagia) much worse.

Medicare would pay the same for either the AirCurve 10 S or the AirCurve 10 VAuto .
The S model has 2 modes of operation...cpap fixed single pressure and bilevel fixed pressures.
The VAuto has 3 modes of operation..cpap fixed single pressure and bilevel fixed pressures AND auto adjusting bilevel pressures.
You should have got the VAuto...that auto adjusting mode might have come in handy to help with the air in the stomach issues. Maybe you could use less pressure for half the night and higher the other half and maybe that would decrease the aerophagia issues.

Pugsy, Thank you so much for explaining the advantage of Vpap vs Bipap. I will call my doctor immediately to fax the Aircurve 10 VAuto Rx to the supplier. I hope they don't mind me to exchange my opened box 10S for a new one. I guess, since you mentioned it cost them the same, It will be easy specially Auto is medically necessary.
breakdown you requested:
1.6 central
4.9 obstructive
Total 6.5

Also, I Downloaded Rescan software but can not transfer the data files to software for your viewing. Any suggestions?
It has 2 datalog and settings files and crc, tgt and edf files

We usually do screen shots of the software reports so that everyone can see them.
See this thread for how.
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

EPAP is the most critical pressure number for reducing those Obstructive Apneas. Since you reduced it a bit that might explain the slightly higher OA numbers. We ignore the central apneas since you aren't having a large number of them and we can't really fix centrals with this type of machine anyway. At this point the central index doesn't warrant fixing anyway.

You may need to make a compromise between the OAs and the aerophagia issues.

The VAuto will cost the DME more that the AirCurve 10 S....but Medicare pays the DME the same...so the DME may squawk about making a little less profit. Medicare pays by HCPCS billing code and the code for the S model and the VAuto model is the same.