• Alejandra Fernández, María N Chiapella, Matías Baldini, Diana Vera, and Sergio Guardia.
• Laboratorio de Función Pulmonar y Sueño, Hospital Nacional Profesor Dr. Alejandro Posadas, El Palomar, Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: afernandez_05@yahoo.cpm.ar.
• Medicina (B Aires). 2022 Jan 1; 82 (1): 55-60.

AbstractThe use of positive airway pressure is the treatment of choice for obstructive sleep apnea. Since the beginning of SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic the recommendations were to avoid the administration of this therapy in the sleep laboratory and to start treatment with autoadjustable continuous positive airway pressure devices. The objective was to evaluate access to these devices in the current epidemiological context. Sixty-six patients were included, the mean age was 50.7 ± 12.8, 44% men with an AHI of 35.5 (22.7-64.2) and a BMI of 38.3 (32.8-46.1). Forty-five percent had health insurance. Of the 50 (74%) who processed the device, 19 (29%) had access. Health insurance was the only significant variable between those who had access to the device and those who did not: 54% vs. 21% (p=0.016). The delay between the beginning of the procedure to access the device and the start of treatment was 31 ± 21 in patients who had medical insurance and 65 ± 35.2 in those who did not (p = 0.008). Access to auto-adjustable therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic was below our former experience and that described in other studies with fixed therapies. It is worth considering whether this decrease is a product of the pandemic and independent of the type of therapy or is directly related to the higher costs of self-adjustable devices or to a lack of coverage from the healthcare providers.

14 keywords...

hide…