Can you get lung damage from too much cpap pressure?

Matty332 wrote:I just wanted to quickly follow this post up,

When I visited my sleep doctor he got annoyed and turned my EPR off again. He said pressure 20 no EPR and that is it for optimal treatment. Lung issues again *sigh*.

If I were you, I would seriously consider finding a new doctor if you complained about the chest pain and he doesn't care enough to take that into consideration. Also what else is alarming is that he knows that there are better treatment options than what he prescribed. Optimal treatment is not only keeping your AHI low.........but also taking your complaints into account.

I was much like you 2 years ago. My pressure was 20 on regular cpap with an AHI of 1 to 2. I asked my PCP to order a new sleep study using Bi-Pap because even EPR wasn't helping. I am now on a pressure of 15/10 with bi-pap and I have no more soreness everyday. My AHI now runs from 0.0 to 0.3 with the 0.0 most nights.

You you could try is going to a setting of 2 on your EPR and then see if that lowers your AHI some more but yet doesn't leave you sore the next day.

During my almost two years since I been here, I have seen the heading of this same question at list 4 times. But there was never a convincing reply. S0 I thing that I'll wait to see the reply in one of the popular newspapers and magazine someday.

avi123, I'll take a swing at an answer to this general question: "Can you get lung damage form too much CPAP pressure?"

First, if we are just talking about CPAP, then the answer is "probably not". Note I do not say "NO", since there are some circumstances under which damage might occur. If someone had some sort of lung disease (but not COPD), then the damage to the lungs might be worsened by the CPAP pressure. But that's essentially it. There has to already be some damage to the lung structure before CPAP could cause problems.

Why do I say that? Well, let's compare a hefty 20cm H2O ... If we convert that to PSI you only get less than 0.3 PSI. That's less than one third of one PSI. Here's my source for that:

http://www-users.med.cornell.edu/~spon/ ... essure.htm

Now, let's imagine how much that one third of one PSI will do. Will it inflate a balloon? Nope. It might just keep keep it from going limp, but it certainly won't fully inflate the balloon.

So, why do our lungs feel sore with a higher pressure. Because we are not used to breathing against the slightly higher pressure. Our muscles take time to adjust to it. But we will adjust.

To the point for the OP .. the slight increase in pressure can lead to other issues ... which is why his cardiologist needs to help lead the charge. If his sleep doctor is not listening to his cardiologist, then the OP should find another sleep specialist.

An ordinary sneeze can supposedly generate more than 50cm water column pressure. So 20cm is not going to cause barotrauma in non-diseased lungs.

I get the same thing but its not the Cpap pressure that hurts it Ambient air temperature that hurts them. I live an Arizona and it can get real hot here and then the cpap will even make the air hotter. So if its hotter than 85 degrees Fahrenheit inside your room or you have a humidifier turned up to high or you don't have a humidifier and the air it dry your lungs will hurt. Make Shure you have water in your humidifier and its set to a temp that you can handle. and keep the temps in your bedroom below 85.