Friday, February 25, 2011

ABSTRACT: Is automatic CPAP titration as effective as manual CPAP titration in OSAHS patients? A meta-analysis.
Gao W, Jin Y, Wang Y, Sun M, Chen B, Zhou N, Deng Y.
Center of Sleep-Disordered Breathing Medicine, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, 300052, China.


PURPOSE: It is costly and time-consuming to conduct the standard manual titration to identify an effective pressure before continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. Automatic titration is cheaper and more easily available than manual titration. The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effect of automatic titration in identifying a pressure and on the improvement of apnea/hyponea index (AHI) and somnolence, the change of sleep quality, and the acceptance and compliance of CPAP treatment, compared with the manual titration.

CONCLUSION: Automatic titration is as effective as standard manual titration in improving AHI, somnolence while maintaining sleep quality similar to the standard method. In addition, automatic titration has the same effect on the acceptance and compliance of CPAP treatment as manual titration. With the potential advantage of time and cost savings, automatic titration was recommended to be applied in identifying a proper pressure for CPAP treatment instead of manual titration in clinical practice.

Read the full abstract here.

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