Experiencing High Leak Rate (ResMed S9)

[sleepy Bruce]

Hi this is specifically regarding anyone who uses Res-Med S9 machine experiencing high leak rates. It took me many years to find this. So I thought I'd post as it might help someone else. In the clinician set up there are 4 pages.  I thought the first page had all of the settings for comfort. Cpap, Epr, Ramp, Mask type etc.., Resmed put a setting on the 2nd page called Epr inhale. It has 2 settings med and fast. My DME set my machine to fast as he didn't even know what the setting did.  The Res-Med default setting is med.  So if you are using EPR  the EPR inhale setting on the next page is very important. It determines how fast the machine will try to get back to your prescribed pressure after an Exhalation Pressure Reduction.  If too fast on inhale you will be fighting it in most cases.  I was. After this discovery I was able to cut back on my humidity and my pressure setting.  I use the Air Fit P-10 nasal pillow mask and with the addition of a Ruby Red chin strap my leak rate most nights has been 0.  Before this change leakage was mid 30's. Hope this helps someone else.

[Sleeprider]

Interesting finding. The S9 manual indicates this feature is only available in CPAP mode. I was unable to find mention of this in the Airsense 10 manuals. The S9 manual does not describe the function of this setting, but appears to be the equivalent on a bilevel to rise time in both Resmed and Respironics.

Rise Time sets the time taken for the device to reach IPAP. The greater the rise time value, the longer it takes for pressure to increase from EPAP to IPAP. People like myself that have high ventilation volume, or those who have high respiration rates generally prefer a faster rise time, while shallow and slower breathers do well with medium time.

I have no idea why this feature is available only in CPAP mode, or why it is discontinued on the Airsense 10.