CPAP Therapeutic Options for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

There are many options available to patients who are placed on constant positive airway pressure (CPAP) for obstructive sleep apnea. Despite the success of CPAP in correcting apnea, a significant number of patients have difficulty with the therapy. A large number of those patients who have difficulty stop therapy and are often labeled as "CPAP Failure". Non-sleep specialists may view CPAP therapy as a singular course of treatment, but there are many ways CPAP may be ordered for a patient. Each patient experiences a unique set of options that constitute a unique order set.

In order to demonstrate the magnitude of the possible options, estimates of the number of unique order sets were calculated. The author chose individual order options and the number of selections possible within each option. The calculated sets included a "Generous, Limited and Minimal" number of selections for each option. Calculations were done separately for standard CPAP and for auto-adjusting CPAP. Additional calculations were performed using the number of commercially available masks in the United States.

The maximum number of unique order sets was seen using a standard CPAP combined with commercially available masks: 49,152 unique order sets. The fewest number of unique order sets were seen with the auto-adjusting CPAP and the "Minimal" selections: 288 unique order sets.

There are a large number of unique CPAP orders that a patient may experience. CPAP treatment is not a singular or simple therapy. When evaluating obstructive sleep apnea patients with histories of CPAP failure or prior difficulty with CPAP, paying close attention to the patient's treatment experiences may help explain a significant number of those patients' CPAP therapy problems.