Comparison between Resmed airsense 10 and Resmed aircurve 11

I have a feeling this has been covered here, but I couldn’t get anything to come up using the search function.

In short, I have had a Resmed air sense 10 for 10 years and it’s on its last legs. My doctor is recommending a home sleep test and an air curve 11. Actually, she says I might be able to choose which machine I want. Depends on availability. What are the pros and cons?

The doctor’s office is telling me to sleep without any CPAP for 7 nights before the test. This seems brutal to me. Do I have any other options?

Thanks,

Lindsay

lindsayschach wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 28, 2024 6:07 pm

The doctor’s office is telling me to sleep without any CPAP for 7 nights before the test. This seems brutal to me. Do I have any other options?

Seems like more and more sleep docs are advising abstaining from cpap for a period of time because of a sort of hold over effect that some people experience when stopping cpap. They next few nights the body sometimes doesn't revert back to the way it was prior to starting cpap. The thinking being that if cpap's hold over effect does happen then the new sleep study might not reflect the full severity of the problem. I have seen some people report being advising discontinuing cpap for 2 weeks prior to the repeat sleep study.

lindsayschach wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 28, 2024 6:07 pm

In short, I have had a Resmed air sense 10 for 10 years and it’s on its last legs. My doctor is recommending a home sleep test and an air curve 11. Actually, she says I might be able to choose which machine I want. Depends on availability. What are the pros and cons?

The doctor’s office is telling me to sleep without any CPAP for 7 nights before the test. This seems brutal to me. Do I have any other options?

I disagree with the home sleep test etc... you're an established patient with a history of OSA. We don't know whether you're Mild, Moderate, or Severe original diagnosis... this will greatly affect the outcome of trying to sleep without your machine on your face. I'm Severe, I can't live without CPAP. My silly doctor had me go in for a sleep study, I failed it miserably, it was torture. I then demanded a titration instead.

What you want is a lab *titration*... ask for a bi-level titration. That was a whole different experience for me... you sleep on a machine, they adjust the therapy. I found that I did do better on bi-level, ended up with a brand new Aircurve 10 vAuto. Ask for the 10 if you can get it, it's a lot more robust than the 11 and your mask/hose/filters/tubs etc will cross right over. Lab titration is not cheap, I paid 2500$, but that satisfied my deductible for the year, so the new Aircurve 10 will end up costing only about 400$ on my PPO plan. I ended up going from 10cm CPAP 14 years ago to now 21/17cm bi-level, sleep much better with this.

Also ask for an Ambien pill well before the lab visit... your doctor prescribes it, you pick it up at your pharmacy, they don't just hand out goofballs at the lab, sadly. This will help a lot with getting to sleep in a lab situation.

Maybe you're a Mild case and the doctor wants to see if you still need CPAP... but the recommendation of a bi-level would seem to preclude that. Your choice, of course... but I found that neither my insurance nor Medicare required another sleep study AHI diagnosis, and the lab titration was conclusive for bi-level therapy need.

BTW save that old machine... with a new motor it can go another 22,000 hours no problem... and a spare *everything* is good to have around.

My doctor told me that Medicare wouldn't pay unless I had a new sleep study. I did the at home sleep study, and it found 23 hypopneas/hour so I will be getting a new machine.

I still don't know whether to insist on a 10, or go with the 11 (which iw my doctor's preference). The doctor says there's no difference and I haven't heard otherwise on this forum.

I'm going to replace the motor in my Airsense 10, so I have a spare.

I'll meet with the RT in the doctor's group next weekI met someone in the Las Vegas airport who has a mini and swears by it. Do they really work well for an every night machine? Sounds much more convenient. I don't know how I would work that with MediCare. Anybody out there know?

Thanks,

Lindsay