After four hours of back-and-forth deliberation Wednesday afternoon by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Medical Review Board over how to help truck drivers who use CPAP machines included in the massive Philips recall announced this summer, the waters seem to be murkier than before the meeting.
The task given to the MRB by the agency was to develop recommendations for truck drivers and medical examiners on how to handle the situation if their device (or their patient’s device) is included in the recall.
However, at the meeting’s conclusion, the main recommendation that seemed likely to emerge from MRB is one that could potentially put drivers using the recalled Philips CPAP devices in an even more difficult position than before.
The big problem people with recalled devices are facing is that there are very few replacement CPAP devices available – from any manufacturer, not just Philips. The recall itself put a strain on the number of devices available, but exacerbating the problem is the semi-conductor chip shortage that is affecting production of just about every other piece of technology in the world.
A suggestion was made early in the meeting that one potential stopgap measure for truck drivers looking for a CPAP alternative is oral appliance therapy, which includes a device worn in the patient’s mouth while he/she sleeps to open up the airway. Annelise Thornton, the CEO of Population Sleep who initially made the suggestion, said the oral appliances could be used as a bridge solution in certain patients with moderate obstructive sleep apnea.
That suggestion turned into hours of debate over the efficacy of oral appliances and whether they would suffice in place of a CPAP. Experts weighed in throughout the meeting and determined that oral appliance therapy could work for certain sleep apnea patients in the moderate range.
[Related: CPAP recall leaves truck drivers with sleep apnea between a rock and a hard place]
