Cpap and Spinal Meningitis?

Question

I started CPAP 3 months ago and feel much better but have read and been told by several people that you have an incresed chance of a bacterial infection in the lining around the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) while using one. Has anyone heard of someone getting this while using CPAP?

Answer 1

I am a respiratory therapist, and I've NEVER heard of someone using CPAP contracting meningitis.

If it were me, I would realize that the benefits to my health while using CPAP far outweigh a vague risk of meningitis.

Answer 2

Here is a quote from a medical journal article written in 1998. While rare, meningitis has ocurred while using a CPAP

Contraindications For CPAP

Serious side effects with CPAP are very rare but do occur. One contraindication for CPAP is communication between the upper airway and meningeal space, and there are case reports of both pneumoencephalitis1 and meningitis occurring in these patients.2 There is a high prevalence of ischemic heart disease in patients treated with CPAP, but important cardiac side effects have not been reported. There is one published case study3 of atrial arrhythmias developing in CPAP patients. Respiratory disease is also common, but CPAP has proven safe even in patients with advanced respiratory failure. There is the potential for excessive CPAP pressure to induce hypoventilation and central apnea, but this can be avoided by careful pressure setting, and serious complications have not been reported. A case of massive epistaxis due to CPAP has been published.4

Patients starting CPAP usually experience a multitude of irritating problems that may ultimately reduce their compliance with treatment (Table 1, page 76). Many of the problems mentioned, however, are not true side effects but are caused by a lack of familiarity with the equipment and tend to resolve spontaneously over time. (For the purposes of this article, they will be called side effects.) Patients who are poorly compliant with treatment from the start often have difficulty identifying exactly what it is about CPAP therapy they dislike. For some, the entire experience of being attached to a machine while they are asleep is unpleasant, and there is no particular aspect of therapy they can identify as irksome. This may be one reason published studies have not regularly found a relationship between specific side effects and poor compliance.