Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea with continuous nasal airflow

Although nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is effective therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), it requires a customfitted nasal appliance and large cumbersome tubing. We therefore designed and tested a new device (NFLOW) to deliver airflow to the nose of patients with OSA. We studied 13 patients the first night without treatment and the following night with NFLOW. The degree of sleep apnea was assessed by the number of desaturations per hour of sleep and the average maximum desaturation per episode. Treatment with NFLOW significantly decreased all parameters (P<0.01) in 9 patients (69%) who tolerated treatment flow rates above 30 LPM. REM sleep time significantly increased with NFLOW use, however, other sleep stage times were not significantly altered. Obstructive apneas ceased in all but 2 of these patients with treatment. Four patients did not tolerate flow rates above 35 LPM and did not improve. We conclude that NFLOW treatment significantly decreases the number of oxyhemoglobin desaturations and improves oxyhemoglobin saturation in patients with OSA who tolerate the procedure.