Sleep Apnea Treatment Devices Provide Uninterrupted Rest

An increasing abundance of highly efficient and portable electromechanical positive air pressure (PAP) devices for treating sleep apnea mean patients do not need to sacrifice convenience for a good night's sleep anymore, according to a new report by Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA).

PAP devices include Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), which blow a fixed amount of air pressure constantly throughout the duration of the user's sleep cycle; the air pressure forces the airway or air passage open and eliminates apneas, hypopneas, and snoring almost entirely. Automatic Positive Airway Pressure (APAP) and Variable Positive Airway Pressure (VPAP) machines, although requiring an additional learning curve, feature tremendous additional benefits and minimal side effects for patients. The need for portable yet proficient PAP devices is becoming ever more important due to the accelerated growth and aging of the percentage of world's population afflicted with long term chronic diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory, orthopedics, diabetes, and asthma. As a result, newer CPAP machines have been developed that are about the size of two-videocassette (VHS) tape cassettes stacked on top of each other.

"PAP machines used to be very large and impractical, but the realities of everyday life have lead to lighter, more portable machines,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. "People shift while they sleep and not receiving effective, continuous treatment because of this is simply unrealistic.”

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep, and is diagnosed with an overnight sleep test called a polysomnogram. Each pause episode, called an apnea, lasts long enough so that one or more breaths are missed, and such episodes occur repeatedly throughout sleep. The standard definition of any apneic event includes a minimum 10 second interval between breaths, with either a neurological arousal, a blood oxygen (SpO2) desaturation of 3-4% or greater, or both. Clinically significant levels of sleep apnea are defined as five or more episodes per hour of any type of apnea. There are three distinct forms of sleep apnea: central (an interruption due to lack of respiratory effort in central sleep apnea), obstructive (interruption by a physical block to airflow despite respiratory effort), and complex (a transition from central to obstructive features during the events themselves), constituting 0.4%, 84%, and 15% of cases respectively.

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