Is treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome with auto-CPAP useful?

Automatic CPAP therapy has been developed to constantly adapt the positive pressure level to the required needs. The automatic devices have been used in two different ways, one being to determine the pressure level to be prescribed at home for fixed CPAP therapy, and the other one to replace fixed CPAP as an home treatment. This last application should alleviate the need for a titration study. The benefits reported up to now in the literature vary from one machine to another, but usually these machine are effective in abolishing obstructive breathing disturbances and the consecutive sleep fragmentation. The mean positive pressure level applied during automatic CPAP treatment is usually less than the effective pressure level measured during a conventional titration sleep study. Some results suggest that automatic CPAP therapy may improve compliance to CPAP therapy. There is a need to better define if automatic CPAP therapy may benefit to specific groups of sleep apnea patients.