Effectiveness of adaptive servo-ventilation

Adaptive servo-ventilation(ASV) has been developed as a specific treatment for sleep-disordered breathing, in particular Cheyne-Stokes respiration with central sleep apnea(CSA). Heart failure patients often have sleep-disordered breathing, which consists of either obstructive sleep apnea(OSA) or CSA. Other medical conditions, such as stroke, acromegaly, renal failure, and opioid use may be associated with CSA. Continuous positive airway pressure(CPAP) therapy is widely used for patients with OSA, but some of these patients develop CSA on CPAP, which is called treatmentemergent CSA. CPAP can be useful as a treatment for these various forms of CSA, but it is insufficient to eliminate respiratory events in approximately half of patients with CSA. As compared to CPAP, ASV may be a better option to treat CSA, with sufficient alleviation of respiratory events as well as improvement of cardiac function in heart failure patients. In patients without heart failure, ASV can also alleviate CSA and relieve their symptom. Recently, ASV has been widely used for patients with various forms of CSA. ASV may be also used in the setting without CSA, but it should be assessed more carefully. Clinicians should have a better understanding of the indications for ASV in each setting.