Advice on Dreamstation Recall

For years, our preferred PAP manufacturer has been Phillips Respironics and their Dreamstation machines. Recently there has been a recall of their machines because of concern about degradation of insulating foam in the machine. We are monitoring this situation and have the following observations on the data to date:

The degradation is thought to be an issue only for machines exposed to certain environmental conditions including exposure to ozone cleaners and high heat and humidity. If you are using an ozone cleaner such as So Clean, stop using the cleaner immediately. Clean your machine according to Phillips Respironics recommended instructions which can be found here.

To date, no serious adverse events have been identified in Dreamstation users. There have been reports of headache, upper airway irritation, cough, chest pressure and sinus infection. There are serious consequences to untreated sleep apnea. Given this information, if you are not using an ozone cleaner and are not experiencing symptoms it is probably best to continue your PAP therapy while waiting for your machine to be fixed. If you are using an ozone cleaner and experiencing symptoms stop using your PAP therapy until the machine can be fixed.

We will continue to monitor the situation and update our recommendations accordingly. The official Phillips Respironics communication can be found here.