[COVID-19] CPAP use for Coronavirus mitigation & severe pneumonia

[SarcasticDave94]

If the setup is just a CPAP machine and supplemental oxygen, you just add an oxygen bleed into the airflow. An example with a ResMed CPAP, APAP, BPAP, VAuto, ST, ST-A, ASV machine is a ClimateLine Oxy hose or a generic hose oxy bleed stand alone part.

Those machines represent all current CPAP class ResMed's excepting the next class NIV or NIV like machines like the Stellar and Astral. All current unless I missed one. Astrals and maybe Stellar as well have a built-in oxy bleed.

[Thomas Gavr]

very good thinking  

[slowriter]

If the setup is just a CPAP machine and supplemental oxygen, you just add an oxygen bleed into the airflow.

How do you actually get oxygen?

[Thomas Gavr]

Has anyone the program to Decode the readings from CPAP Lowenstein SOMNObalance e (or weinmann)
I want to keep track of the readings

[silversnore]

generally from your DME or other medical sources, comes compressed in tanks.

[SarcasticDave94]

slowriter, it would come via a script from one of your docs that see medical necessity by way of measured oxygen level down to 89%. Then the script goes to the friendly neighborhood DME to dispense, most likely now it would be an oxygen concentrator machine. Although the bottled oxy is sometimes dispensed. All depends on specs on script I think.

[KallyA]

MedCram had a webinar last night titled "Key COVID-19 Clinical Updates and Lessons Learned So Far"

It is aimed at doctors and nurses, but includes Q and A - w response about using CPAP to treat at home.

No charge. It can be found here: https://www.medcram.com/pages/covid-19-webinar

reposted to Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTPuyB_...e=youtu.be

[BadGoodDeb]

MedCram had a webinar last night titled "Key COVID-19 Clinical Updates and Lessons Learned So Far"

It is aimed at doctors and nurses, but includes Q and A - w response about using  CPAP to treat at home.

No charge. It can be found here: https://www.medcram.com/pages/covid-19-webinar

reposted to Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTPuyB_...e=youtu.be

Do you have a timestamp for the CPAP question?   I just listened to the lat 10 minutes of talk and *all* of the questions, and didn't hear anything about CPAP.   I did hear interesting bits, so thanks!  But nothing on CPAP?

Edit: Sorry -- I started earlier and listened to the WHOLE video. There is a question period in the middle too. At 27:50 they answer a question about CPAP. However, what they're saying is: if you need a CPAP to keep breathing at home, you ought to go to the hospital. Since we are positing a time when we cannot go to the hospital, then I guess CPAP can still be useful.

[2SleepBetta]

Survival rates for those unfortunate enough to be placed on a ventilator make grim reading and this might explain why. If correct, it might also contraindicate CPAP for treating C-19:

http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/urgent-...nt-2309382

I may be redundant, not having time to watch the linked video #53 now, but want to thank you for the important  textual information at your link. It helps us decide and focus on what is most important in the extreme circumstance where we have no recourse but DIY and such preparedness as we have in knowledge, xPAP machines, phlegm removal aids, vitamin C,  a contingent home sickroom plan--whatever.

The information lines up with findings of MD's Gattinoni Luciano in Italy, whose work got the attention of NY ER physician Cameron Kyle-Sidell who tried and came to understand more why Covid patients had much more lively behavior and lung responses than typical of ER and ICU arrivers for advanced pneumonia and ARDS. Lungs were more elastic ("compliant") and behavior unusually vital, but SpO2 very low. Dr. CKS was interviewed at and explained at a site The Highwire and more followed from Sharon Begley at StatNews.com.
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My take away from weighting the experts I've read and of my local situation:

Keep praying, obviously, for the scourge to pass, all the sick and mourning, etc.. 


Once I or my wife meet specified Covid infection criteria to be hospitalized: temp, dry coughs, breathing difficulty etc. it  is a go-no-go ER situation. (My wife and I should already have been observing extra good health and isolation-like practice, though it is likely she is already infected since we do not wear masks at home, etc.) I will have called my PCP for his current direction (to be weighed if response is timely and redirecting).


If hospitals are flooded, immediately make any minor additional adjustments needed for both pass through ventilation (upwind outdoor intake, contaminated downwind exhaust--ideally) and humidification of sickroom. Apply such as you have devised, if anything, to filter mask exhaust. 

Adjust settings EPR or PS (Resmed) as I have then most recently been seeing recommended by AB experts. 
Writing this now, I suddenly realize unaddressed need to train my wife (her having no SA) to use either a Vauto or Autoset (I can use either... training over likely resistance levels is a real challenge, if not my biggest one!)


Keep abreast of changes re hospital census states.
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Remaining to be done as of now:

Get spouse aboard: accept the idea and practice doing xPAP herself if it comes to that..

Find out if O2 in industrial bottles is accompanied by other harmful agents.

If my O2 bottled gas is good, get necessary xPAP and (additional?) O2 regulators and adapters and become familiar with xPAP use of bottled O2. I have O2 in my oxy-acetylene gas welding and cutting setup.

The latter is at the heart (no pun) of this matter as seen by MD's above and increasingly among others.
Fewer intubations/ventilators, less pressure, more O2, more proning, etc.

[KallyA]

I know it's a bit late to add to this discussion after 58 messages, but I participated in a Q and A class today concerning COVID-19 and came away with a different view about using oxygen at home for this virus. My professor (a medical doctor) indicated you should be using a pulse oximeter to see what is happening to your oxygen levels if you believe you have contracted the virus. This is primary because your oxygen may drop significantly before you feel any symptoms with this disease. If it drops significantly (from 98 to 92, for instance), do not hesitate to seek medical help. Do not try to use oxygen at home if there is any way you can get medical attention. The reason is that this is an indicator that your lungs are already becoming too compromised to be able to take in the added oxygen. This is due to blood thickening and other changes that occur in the lungs with this disease. His statement was "you don't have time to take a try it and see, approach...you can be dead in two days." So please if you think you have COVID-19, do consider the options in this forum only if YOU KNOW YOUR OXYGEN LEVEL IS STILL NORMAL (FOR YOU), CERTAINLY NOT BELOW 92, AND ONLY IF THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO MEDICAL PERSONNEL AVAILABLE FOR YOU. You do not need a prescription for a fingertip pulse oximeter. You can find a decent one on Amazon for $30-40 or less.