Central Sleep Apnea

Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) affects only 5-10% of the sleep apnea population. CSA occurs when both airflow and respiratory effort cease. This cessation of breathing results from a loss of the autonomic drive to breathe, due to a host of issues including, brain injury, and too much pressure delivered by a flow generator. When central apnea is caused by another condition which as heart disease or stroke, the centra apnea is considered to be the secondary disease. In these cases, successful treatment of the primary condition will often resolve the central sleep apnea. In a smaller number of incidents, statistically, the central apnea is idiopathic. This is, there is no secondary disease to treat, nor is there a determinable root cause for the apnea itself. In these cases, VPAP treatment is undertaken encouraging success rates.

With CSA, the lower brain stem that controls and regulates breathing is disrupted and stops signaling the muscles that control breathing. Its not that you can't breath, you just stop breathing.

CSA is treated using a BiPap machine to auto-breath for you during a CSA event. The BiPap requires high and low pressure settings to successfully auto-breath during a CSA event.

EPAP Exhalation pressure (lower pressure setting), lower pressure to breath out.

IPAP Inhalation pressure (higher pressure setting), higher pressure to breath in.

Popular BiPap machines: Respironics AutoSV Advanced or a Resmed VPAP Adapt.