High leaks but good therapy
I recently upgraded to the Airsense 10. This change was from an older generation machine. It took me awhile to sleep well on it. Note after two months and three new masks I have been sleeping great. My events per hour are. 3 and my centrals are. 1. The only concern I have is that my leak rate goes up. Last night it was 42L/min. There leaks don't wake me up. Should I be concerned about this leak rate or just be happy that I am getting good therapy? I use the Comfortgel Blu from Respironics. Small size.
RE: High leaks but good therapy
Above 28 LPM leak rate, one cannot trust the numbers. You need to control the leaks.
Perhaps you should be monitoring with software to determine the amount of time you are > 28 LPM leak.
Since that's a nasal mask, your leaks may be from your mouth. You might try a chin strap to train your mouth to stay closed.
RE: High leaks but good therapy
(12-17-2015, 07:50 AM)justMongo Wrote: Above 28 LPM leak rate, one cannot trust the numbers. You need to control the leaks.
Perhaps you should be monitoring with software to determine the amount of time you are > 28 LPM leak.
Since that's a nasal mask, your leaks may be from your mouth. You might try a chin strap to train your mouth to stay closed.
I gave up on the nasal mask in favor of a full face mask because I couldn't keep my mouth shut...even with a chin strap. No issue with leaks and getting excellent therapy.
RE: High leaks but good therapy
(12-17-2015, 08:14 AM)JimZZZ Wrote: I gave up on the nasal mask in favor of a full face mask because I couldn't keep my mouth shut...even with a chin strap. No issue with leaks and getting excellent therapy.
Exactly why I use a full face mask.
RE: High leaks but good therapy
Hi PastorMeador,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Hang in there for more responses to your post and much success to you with your CPAP therapy.
trish6hundred
RE: High leaks but good therapy
Any idea why my machine would show one leak le el and the report I get from MyAir is lower?
My machine reported 37L/ Min. But MyAir said it was 24L/min.
12-18-2015, 11:42 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2015, 11:42 AM by PaytonA.)
RE: High leaks but good therapy
It would be helpful if you corrected your machine type in your profile. The Airsense 10 is a Resmed machine but it could be a CPAP, Elite, or Autoset model.
I can't say for sure but my feeling is that Resmed's software ignores some spurious leakage spikes and I am fairly sure of that. The machine reports everything.
Best Regards,
PaytonA
12-18-2015, 06:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2015, 06:26 PM by ginzo.)
RE: High leaks but good therapy
Welcome PastorMeador!!!!
LL's are a concern but since you sleep great it is a lessor issue than AHI's and such. Are you in CPAP mode or APAP? I found that the pressure from being in CPAP was "blowing" the nasal pillow off my face, plus my big mouth would fall open. I went to APAP mode, it's kind of like cruise control so to speak. Helped me immensely. Started using a chinstrap and then on 30 day trial periods, dialed in the lower and higher pressures. I don't always get perfect leak scores, but they are way down. We are talking about a 4-5 month period.
My symptoms were identical to yours. I see your pressures are 5-15. Start at 5 and ramp to a full 15 I take it? I was at 16, then went to 14 and still had issues. Now I'm golden.
Chuck
(12-17-2015, 07:33 AM)PastorMeador Wrote: I recently upgraded to the Airsense 10. This change was from an older generation machine. It took me awhile to sleep well on it. Note after two months and three new masks I have been sleeping great. My events per hour are. 3 and my centrals are. 1. The only concern I have is that my leak rate goes up. Last night it was 42L/min. There leaks don't wake me up. Should I be concerned about this leak rate or just be happy that I am getting good therapy? I use the Comfortgel Blu from Respironics. Small size.
RE: High leaks but good therapy
(12-18-2015, 10:39 AM)PastorMeador Wrote: Any idea why my machine would show one leak le el and the report I get from MyAir is lower?
My machine reported 37L/ Min. But MyAir said it was 24L/min.
Check the period on the machine screen sleep report set to 1 Day, default set 1 Month
Whenever the machine is powered down or unplugged, period revert back to default setting 1 Month
As long as, your sleep is not disturbed by leaks, I wouldn't fussed by numbers, the number means ... leak was at or below (not all night long) this number for 95% of the night. Download the software
http://www.sleepfiles.com/SH2/ to get a better understanding of what is going on
RE: High leaks but good therapy
I am on auto. I just went out and got a chin strap. Been on cpap since 2005 and have never had the kind of trouble I have had since switching to this new machine. I used the CPAP Pro mouth guard style for years. But the auto pressure had too much play in it. Then tried a nasal pillow and couldn't back it. Went back to the very first mask I wore in the Comfortgel Blue. Finally making progress!! I almost liked it better when I just put the thing on and didn't have all these nu!bers to worry about!!
