Common Side Effects and Compliance with Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressurein Korean OSA patients: Short-term Follow Up

Abstract

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate factors affecting compliance and acceptance of nasal CPAP in Korean OSA patients. Methods : Forty patients with OSA who underwent nasal CPAP titration with either full night or split night polysomnogram (PSG) at Dankook University hospital were enrolled. Sleep questionnaire, PSG results and medical records were retrospectively reviewed. The telephone interview was done for questions regarding CPAP side effects. Smart card data from nasal CPAP were reviewed. We compared CPAP trial group to patients who refused CPAP. Patients who kept using CPAP (user) were compared to patients who stopped using CPAP within a month (CPAP failure group). Follow-up duration was 7.8±2.9 months. Results : Twenty-eight patients (26 male, 45.6±8.5years) accepted CPAP trial after titration. The trial group had more prevalent history of drowsy driving, higher respiratory arousal index (RAI), higher apnea index and shorter sleep latency than no trial group. Sixty-four percent of trial group continued using nasal CPAP. The user group had significant higher BMI, higher RAI and higher ratio of supine/lateral respiratory disturbance index (RDI) than the CPAP failure group. The most common complaint in user group was mask leak whereas the CPAP failure group most commonly complained of mask discomfort and difficulty in falling asleep. Conclusions : Our study showed that 70% of OSA patients accept CPAP and among them 64% continued using CPAP. History of drowsy driving can be a good motivation factor encouraging CPAP. CPAP users were more obese and showed non-positional OSA than CPAP failure group.