CPAP hose plugs/caps for cleaning purposes

lego wrote:

ChicagoGranny wrote: That's not conventional wisdom. It's corporate wisdom, heavily influenced by corporate lawyers who are paid to help prevent lawsuits by money-grubbing idiots.

Apparently some of the tinfoil hat types here have trouble with the term "conventional wisdom". Fine, call it common sense then. Even without an advanced degree (either MD or JD), it ought to be obvious that if you breathe through a tube for 8 hours a day, every day, you might want to occasionally clean that tube. Common sense also tells me that if you leave something moist all the time, it gets nasty. Just imagine a bath towel that's been used for 2 weeks. How does it smell?

ChicagoGranny wrote: You not worried about mold spores entering the wet hose while it is hanging all day?

Yes, that is a minor concern. And if I was still renting my machine, I'd hook the freshly rinsed hose back up and let the machine run for 15 mins to dry it. Instead, I let in hang to dry because I don't want to add hours to the machine or influence my stats. Also, I'm not looking for sterile, just clean, so air drying is enough. After a couple hours of air drying, the hose is mostly dry, so mold is much less of a concern.

Look, I'm not saying "Alert the media! We've got an epidemic!". But, I also think it's irresponsible to tell a CPAP newbie not to clean their hose. It's simple, costs almost nothing, and prevents some ugly illnesses.

The problem with common sense it it's no longer common and for the most part the sense can't pass the test. Jim

Cleaning is a frequent topic on this forum. Some people clean everything every day, others never clean. The best advice I can give is to clean to the level you are comfortable with. My wife and I grew up in an age where it was acceptable to be a "little dirty". It was understood that kids will eat a certain amount of dirt and other things, and you could not keep them and their stuff spotless. We were supposed to be exposed to a certain amount of germs in order for our immune system to get stronger. We raised our children with the same philosophy. A lot of people today were never allowed to get dirty, and have become obsessive about keeping everything clean. The best advice I can give anyone is to clean to the level you are comfortable with. If you feel you must clean daily, then do so. On the other hand, if you feel you never need to clean something, don't clean it. We will all eventually find the level of cleanliness we are comfortable with. We have found the level we are comfortable with, and will continue at that level until someone can prove we are wrong. Just because you don't agree with how someone cleans, or doesn't clean, your way is no more right than theirs is.

lego wrote: But, I also think it's irresponsible to tell a CPAP newbie not to clean their hose. It's simple, costs almost nothing, and prevents some ugly illnesses.

Cleaning the hose prevents some ugly illnesses? I only clean mine once a month. Which ugly illnesses am I in danger of? Please provide citations.

I only clean my hose after I have an ugly illness such as bronchitis.

DeepFriedDuck wrote:

lego wrote: But, I also think it's irresponsible to tell a CPAP newbie not to clean their hose. It's simple, costs almost nothing, and prevents some ugly illnesses.

Cleaning the hose prevents some ugly illnesses? I only clean mine once a month. Which ugly illnesses am I in danger of? Please provide citations.

The same ones I am likely to have by not ever cleaning mine, unless you clean yours in the bathroom, which I would never do, and I use Lysol spray in the bathroom.(Don't use it on floors, it makes them as slick as ball bearings) My dirt is mine as are my germs we co-exist in peace! If they appear to need cleaned, I replace them with fresh germs from Asia. Nothing like the smell of fresh germs in the mornings! Jim

DeepFriedDuck wrote:

lego wrote: But, I also think it's irresponsible to tell a CPAP newbie not to clean their hose. It's simple, costs almost nothing, and prevents some ugly illnesses.

Cleaning the hose prevents some ugly illnesses? I only clean mine once a month. Which ugly illnesses am I in danger of? Please provide citations.

I refuse to spend more time on something that ought to be obvious, but 5 minutes on Google ought to satisfy most ignorance. This study shows that CPAP users are 32% more likely to contract pneumonia and specifically calls for tube cleaning:
"every effort should be made to minimize the risk of pneumonia, such as enhanced cleaning of CPAP tubing and humidifier"
source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3971026/

How about showing me a citation that says cleaning is a bad thing?

Once again I'm reminded of the similarities to the anti-vaxers.

lego wrote:This study shows that CPAP users are 32% more likely to contract pneumonia

You are wrong. The study does not show that. Read for yourself.

We conducted this nationwide population-based study to determine whether sleep apnea predisposed the development of pneumonia.

Risk of pneumonia was stratified according to the need for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, which was used as a surrogate marker for severity of sleep apnea.

This study showed that sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for incident pneumonia.

So, the study only shows that patients with sleep apnea are more likely to contract pneumonia. The authors of the study include a rationale for why that may be:

The higher risk of incident pneumonia among patients with sleep apnea could be attributed to increased aspiration risk and impaired immunity. Following episodes of apnea–hypopnea, resultant hypoxemia may stimulate patients to breath against a closed airway, therefore causing the intrathoracic pressure to become more negative.22–25 The more-negative intrathoracic pressure induces a higher pressure gradient and a vacuum pressure through the upper airway.26 Additionally, patients with obstructive sleep apnea are likely to have impaired sensation of the upper airway and to exhibit an impaired swallowing reflex.27,28 Both factors may facilitate aspiration of pathogen-containing pharyngeal secretions, saliva or oral contents into the lower respiratory tract. Furthermore, sleep apnea interrupts sleep owing to frequent apnea-related arousals (i.e., sleep fragmentation), which likely adversely affects patients’ immunity and renders them susceptible to pneumonia.29 In addition, sleep apnea may involve hypercapnia, which has been linked to impaired lung neutrophil function, which could render these patients susceptible to pneumonia.30

The authors conclude:

Conclusion

Sleep apnea may be a risk factor for pneumonia, and the risk probably increases in accordance with sleep apnea severity.

They do engage in some speculation about "cleaning". However, there is nothing in the study to show that cleaning prevents anything. Nor, is there anything in the study that shows failure to clean causes any health problems.

lego wrote: but 5 minutes on Google ought to satisfy most ignorance.

You might want to spend another five minutes to get satisfaction.

Frankly I am amazed at the level of stubborn ignorance in this thread over such a simple topic. Many of the responses here defy logic.

lego wrote:...common sense ...Common sense also tells me that if you leave something moist all the time, it gets nasty. Just imagine a bath towel that's been used for 2 weeks. How does it smell?

"common sense" would tell anybody that actually tries using it that there's absolutely no connection between a damp bath towel (hopefully) hanging in a corner of the bathroom and a plastic tube with air flowing through it....

DeepFriedDuck wrote:

lego wrote: But, I also think it's irresponsible to tell a CPAP newbie not to clean their hose. It's simple, costs almost nothing, and prevents some ugly illnesses.

Cleaning the hose prevents some ugly illnesses? I only clean mine once a month. Which ugly illnesses am I in danger of? Please provide citations.

any horrible thing you can imagine...

if the cleaners didn't get it (ebola) then they obviously prevented it (hemorrhagic fever) by religiously cleaning their equipment!

lego wrote:Frankly I am amazed at the level of stubborn ignorance in this thread over such a simple topic. Many of the responses here defy logic.

The simpler the topic, the simpler the people that respond. Everyone can decide how much time they have to waste cleaning. Those Ducks did taste better after they were washed in Dawn, petroleum leaves a foul taste in my mouth. I have to eat dirt to get the taste out! Jim

lego wrote:source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3971026/.

ah, the Taiwan observation... often trotted out those that have a superficial understanding.

I swap out my hose with a clean one about every 3 weeks or so depending on heat and humidity. If there wasn't condensation in the hose from the humidifier, I'd probably never clean it. But a constantly damp environment will grow funk and the hose will start to smell.

It's so humid where I live that I've hung up one of my tubes for 2 days and it still had moisture in it. I don't want to run my cpap machine because I don't want to mess up my stats.

My solution to solve the tube drying thing is to put the hose in a ziploc bag or container after I clean them and then put it in the freezer. Later I can shake out all the water as ice before I hook it up to my machine. I do the same thing for the extra nose cushions and face gear that connects to the hose and serves as a mask like thing to keep the cushion up under my nose.

I change out the cushions and face gear more frequently. When I'm done with one, I put it in a plastic bowl. When I get close to running out of clean ones in the freezer, I'll wash a batch and freeze them. They stay clean and relatively germ free. Been doing it for about a year now with no signs of negative effects on the rubber or integrity of the hose.

Less likely to get a sinus infection now too. If I keep a tube in rotation too long, I usually get sinus irritation - the longer I don't swap it out for a clean one, the worse my sinuses get. I swap out, and a day or two later my sinuses settle down.

Wish I could find some end caps for the hoses - it would make cleaning much easier and less splashy.

I think it's a waste of time, but if it will make you happy...look here.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/tube-c ... -hose.html

Any virologists, bacteriologists, or epidemiologists available to give an expert opinion?