Ramp abuse. A novel form of patient noncompliance to administration of nasal continuous positive airway pressure for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Abstract

Administration of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) is the treatment of choice for most patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Many patients experience side effects with NCPAP use, and the compliance rate is reported to vary between 46-89%. The ramp is a device found on many NCPAP machines that resets the pressure to 3 cm H2O and then slowly increases the pressure to the prescribed pressure over a period of up to 45 min. The ramp allows patients time to fall asleep before the higher and likely more uncomfortable prescribed pressure is administered. We present a case in which a patient's repeated remote-controlled activation of this ramping feature severely limited effective therapy even when the NCPAP mask was properly in place, the machine was on, and the patient was breathing nasally.