Inspire vs CPAP: how they compare, and who should consider switching

In the Inspire vs CPAP choice, CPAP worn through the night is still the most effective, safest and least expensive treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. Inspire is an implant for people who have made a real effort with CPAP and cannot use it. It removes fewer breathing events than a mask worn all night, but it works with nothing on your face, and for the right patient that trade is worth making.

Written by Ryan Nord, MD — Sleep Surgeon, VCU Health  ·  Last medically reviewed: October 30, 2026

On this page
  1. How each one works
  2. Inspire vs CPAP at a glance
  3. Which works better?
  4. A night with each
  5. Drawbacks and risks
  6. Cost and coverage
  7. Who qualifies for Inspire
  8. Stopping CPAP after Inspire
  9. Should you switch?
  10. References
  11. Common questions

The short answer. When patients ask me about Inspire vs CPAP, I start with the same point every time: if CPAP is working for you, keep using it. No implant beats a mask you wear all night. Inspire is for a different group of people, those who have tried CPAP in earnest, with different masks and settings, and still cannot sleep with it.

In the trial that led to its approval, Inspire cut the typical patient’s apnea events by about two-thirds, from 29 an hour to 9.[1] That is less complete than CPAP while CPAP is on. But CPAP only treats the hours you wear it, and most of this comparison turns on that fact.

How do CPAP and Inspire work?

Both treat the same problem, a throat that relaxes and closes during sleep, but they work from opposite directions. CPAP pushes pressurized air through a mask to hold the airway open from the inside, like an air splint. Inspire is an implant that moves your tongue forward with each breath, so your own muscles keep the airway open. CPAP is something you put on every night. Inspire is placed once, in an outpatient operation, and then switched on at bedtime.

CPAP

A bedside machine, a hose and a mask. The mask can be a full-face mask, a nasal mask, or small nasal pillows that sit at the nostrils. The pressure is set from your sleep study or adjusts itself through the night. A related machine, BiPAP, uses one pressure when you breathe in and a lower one when you breathe out, which some people find much easier to sleep with.

Inspire

The current device, Inspire V, has two parts under the skin: a thin lead with a small cuff around the nerve that moves your tongue (the hypoglossal nerve), placed through an incision under the jaw, and a generator below the collarbone that senses your breathing and powers the stimulation. Both incisions are on the right side. You turn it on with a small remote at bedtime and off in the morning. I explain the device, the surgery and the recovery in detail in how the Inspire implant works.

The other implant. A second device, Genio, works on the same nerve but stimulates both sides of it (bilateral stimulation) from a single incision under the chin. It has no implanted battery; a chip worn on an adhesive patch powers it each night. I implant both. The question of whether to move on from CPAP is the same for either one, and how the two implants differ from each other is covered in Inspire vs Genio.

Inspire vs CPAP at a glance

The table puts the two side by side. In short: CPAP needs no surgery, starts working the first night, and is the most effective treatment we have for the hours it is worn. Inspire takes an operation and a few months to set up, and it removes fewer events, but there is nothing to wear. Which one does more for you depends mostly on whether you can keep a mask on through the night.

CPAPInspire
How it keeps the airway openAir pressure through a maskNerve stimulation moves the tongue forward with each breath
SurgeryNoneOutpatient operation, about an hour of operating, two small incisions (neck and chest)
Who it is forThe usual first treatment for obstructive sleep apneaAdults with moderate to severe apnea who could not use CPAP and whose airway pattern suits the implant
Results while in useThe most effective treatment availableApnea events cut by about two-thirds in the pivotal trial (29.3 to 9.0 an hour)[1]
What limits resultsHours of use: about a third of patients fall short of regular use in a 20-year review, and up to 83% in some studies[2][3]Whether your airway responds: about a third of trial patients did not meet the definition of success at one year[1]
When it starts workingThe first nightSwitched on about a month after surgery, then adjusted over the following months
At bedtimeMask, hose and machine; regular cleaning and replacement partsPress a remote; nothing on your face
Main drawbacksMask discomfort, leaks, dryness, claustrophobia, packing it for travelSurgical risks, stimulation discomfort, tongue soreness, a battery replacement operation about every 10 to 11 years
MRINo restrictionAllowed under specific scan conditions. Inspire IV and Inspire V allow full-body scans at 1.5T and 3T; some older models are more limited. Show your Inspire ID card before any scan.
StoppingTake it offTurn it off; removing it is another operation
CostThe least expensive treatment for sleep apnea$30,000 to $65,000 billed; most insured patients pay far less

Each figure is sourced in the sections below. Inspire results come from studies of earlier versions of the device; see the note on Inspire V under drawbacks and risks.

Which works better, Inspire or CPAP?

Worn all night, CPAP works better. While it is on, it controls sleep apnea more completely than any other treatment, and Inspire typically removes about two-thirds of breathing events. But CPAP only treats the hours it is worn, and many people wear it for part of the night or stop altogether. The difference between what a treatment can do and what it does across your whole night is the center of this comparison.

CPAP: works when worn, limited by hours

Researchers usually count someone as using CPAP if they wear it more than 4 hours a night, which is a low bar for a seven- or eight-hour sleeper. Even by that measure, studies have reported that 46% to 83% of patients fall short.[2] A review of 82 studies covering twenty years found about a third of patients (34%) not using CPAP adequately, with no improvement over that time despite coaching and behavioral support.[3] Hours matter: using CPAP for more than 6 hours a night has been linked to less sleepiness, better daily functioning, and memory returning to normal levels.[2]

Why partial use matters

Two words help here. Efficacy is what a treatment does while it is working. Effectiveness is what it does for you across a whole night, week after week. CPAP’s efficacy is high;[2] its effectiveness depends on your hours.

Here is a simple illustration, using arithmetic rather than a study result. Say your AHI (apnea–hypopnea index, the number of times an hour your breathing stops or becomes shallow) is 30, you sleep 7 hours, and CPAP removes every event while you wear it. If you wear it for 4 hours, the 3 unprotected hours still carry about 90 events, which averages out to about 13 an hour across the night. That moves you from the edge of severe apnea to mild apnea, which helps, but it is far from what the same machine would do if you wore it all night. A modeling study made the same point formally: with moderate apnea, a CPAP that works perfectly has to be worn for two-thirds to five-sixths of the night to bring the whole-night AHI under 5.[4]

Inspire: less complete, usually on for most of the night

In the STAR trial, 126 people who had struggled to accept or stay on CPAP received Inspire. At one year, the median AHI fell 68%, from 29.3 to 9.0 events an hour, and 66% met the standard definition of surgical success: events cut at least in half and brought under 20 an hour.[1] Counting everyone at five years, including patients who died or had the device removed, 63% still met it.[5] In the ADHERE registry, which follows patients treated outside a trial, median events fell from 34 to 7 an hour in 227 patients about a year after implant.[6]

In my own published series of 111 patients, the average AHI fell from 32.8 to 10.4, 77.5% met the stricter under-15 version of that success definition, measured mostly on all-night home studies, and patients used the device an average of 6.4 hours a night.[7] The same arithmetic applies to the implant: it works only while it is switched on, so its whole-night result also depends on use, though in the two matched studies below that measured it, implant patients used their device more than PAP patients used theirs.

Two cautions about those numbers. First, success rates depend heavily on how the follow-up sleep study is done: in one study the same 61 patients scored 80% on an in-lab titration study and 46% on an all-night home study, both under the under-15 rule.[8] I explain why, and which number to judge the operation by, on my page about the Inspire success rate. Second, success is not the same as cure. A patient who ends at an AHI of 12 has mild sleep apnea, not none.

Has anyone compared them directly?

No randomized trial has put Inspire and CPAP head to head, and there is a practical reason: everyone who receives Inspire has already been unable to use CPAP. The pivotal trial was an uncontrolled study of exactly that group.[1] A few observational studies have instead compared implant patients with matched patients on positive airway pressure (PAP, the family of machines that includes CPAP):

  • Cleveland Clinic, 201 patients in each group, followed 2 to 6 months. Blood pressure fell more with PAP (the lower number by about 4 points more), though the authors note that differences in how blood pressure was measured may explain part of that. Daytime sleepiness improved slightly more with the implant, and implant patients used their device about 6 hours more a week.[9]
  • Two German university hospitals, 63 patients in each group, followed one year. Apnea control ended up similar, an average AHI of 8.1 with the implant and 6.6 with PAP. PAP removed more events while it was on; implant patients used their device more, 5.0 against 4.0 hours a night, a difference that was not statistically significant. Combining the two, overall effectiveness was 59% for the implant and 51% for PAP, and sleepiness improved more with the implant. Several of the authors report financial ties to Inspire.[10]
  • Cleveland Clinic, 85 implant patients and 217 PAP patients. Improvements in sleepiness, daily functioning and insomnia were comparable, and depression scores improved somewhat more with the implant. The groups were measured at different times, a year after the implant against three months of PAP.[11]

In all three, the implant patients were people who had already struggled with CPAP, and none was randomized, so I read them as evidence that the implant holds its own, not that it wins.

What does a night look like with each?

With CPAP, bedtime means fitting the mask, starting the machine and sleeping attached to a hose, then cleaning the equipment and packing it whenever you travel. With Inspire, you press a button on a small remote, the device pulses once to show it is on, and it waits about thirty minutes before starting so you can fall asleep. In the morning you press the remote again. There is nothing to take off.

A night with CPAP

  • Put on the mask and start the machine; most have a humidifier that needs water.
  • The air pressure runs all night. Leaks or a shifted mask can wake you.
  • Morning: mask off, and the mask and hose cleaned on a regular schedule.
  • Masks, cushions and filters are replaced over time.
  • It goes wherever you sleep, including hotel rooms, flights and campsites, and it needs power when you get there.

A night with Inspire

  • Press the remote at bedtime. One pulse, then about a thirty-minute delay.
  • The device senses each breath and moves the tongue forward in time with it. Most people feel a mild tingle that fades into the background within a few nights.
  • Up in the night? A pause button holds the stimulation while you fall back asleep.
  • Morning: press the remote to turn it off.
  • Use it every time you sleep, naps included. When you travel, the remote comes with you.

The stimulation strength can be adjusted with the remote at home and at office visits about twice a year.

What are Inspire’s drawbacks compared to CPAP?

Inspire’s main drawbacks are the ones CPAP does not have. It requires an operation, it takes a few months to reach full effect, it removes fewer events than a mask worn all night, it does not work for everyone, and the battery has to be replaced in a second, smaller operation about once a decade. MRI scans are allowed only under specific conditions. CPAP’s drawbacks are nightly ones: the mask, the hose, dryness, leaks, and the effort of wearing it.

CPAP side effects

The problems that make people stop CPAP are familiar to anyone who has tried it: pressure or soreness from the mask, leaks that wake you, a dry mouth or nose, nasal congestion, a closed-in or smothering feeling, trouble falling asleep with the mask on, and pulling it off during sleep without realizing it. None of these is dangerous, and many improve with a different mask, heated humidification or a change in pressure. They are still the main reason so many people stop.

Inspire risks and side effects

Serious problems are uncommon: procedure-related serious adverse events occurred in fewer than 2% of patients in the pivotal trial.[1] The risks I go over with every patient are bleeding under the skin (about 1% in my experience), infection (roughly half a percent nationally),[12] temporary weakness of the tongue or lower lip, stimulation that feels uncomfortable until the settings are adjusted, tongue soreness, and a tight band in the neck where the connecting wire can scar down. Across more than 20,000 real-world implants, about 1.5% of patients needed a revision operation within the first year and about 3.6% by year three, and 0.7% and 2.7% had the device removed.[13] Some of those revisions were for the separate breathing-sensor wire between the ribs, which Inspire V no longer has, so the revision figure is likely lower with the current device; the removal figures carry over. The generator battery lasts about 10 to 11 years on average, and replacing it is a shorter outpatient operation in which the leads stay in place.

Every one of these, with the published numbers and how I try to prevent them, is on my page about Inspire side effects and risks.

A note on Inspire V. All published Inspire results, including the ones on this page, come from earlier versions of the device. Inspire V moved the breathing sensor inside the generator, so there is no longer a wire placed between the ribs.[14] The stimulation lead and the way it moves the tongue are unchanged, so the results carry over, and the collapsed-lung risk that came with the rib wire no longer applies. The chest incision and generator pocket remain, so infection, bleeding and battery replacement carry over as well.

How do the costs of Inspire and CPAP compare?

CPAP is the least expensive treatment for sleep apnea, and it is the one insurers expect you to try first. Inspire’s billed price is far higher, generally $30,000 to $65,000 for the device, operation, facility and anesthesia. Insurance covers it for most people who meet the criteria, though, so what patients pay is usually a small fraction of that.

Across national commercial-insurance claims, half of patients paid $263 or less out of pocket for the implant operation.[15] The ongoing costs differ too. CPAP needs replacement masks, cushions and filters for as long as you use it. Inspire needs a battery replacement operation about once a decade, billed through insurance like the first. What you would pay depends on your plan: I walk through the math in how much Inspire costs with and without insurance, and you can check whether your insurance covers Inspire against your plan’s published policy.

Who qualifies for Inspire instead of CPAP?

You qualify for Inspire only after CPAP has not worked for you. Beyond that, the FDA label looks for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, a body weight within its limits, few central apneas, and an airway that collapses in a pattern the implant can treat, which is checked with a sleep endoscopy before surgery. Insurers often add stricter limits of their own.

The CPAP requirement comes first. CPAP has to have failed to control your apnea, or you could not tolerate it, and nearly every insurer wants that trial documented. I explain what counts in what it means to fail CPAP.

The numbers behind the rest of the checklist (an AHI of 15 to 100, a BMI up to 40 on the label with lower limits from many insurers, central and mixed apneas together under 25% of all events, age 22 or older) and what the sleep endoscopy looks for are laid out in who is a candidate for the Inspire implant.

Can I stop using CPAP after Inspire?

Yes, that is the goal. Inspire is meant to replace CPAP. In my post-operative instructions, patients who have been using CPAP stop two weeks before the activation visit, which is about a month after surgery, and from activation on they use the implant every time they sleep, naps included. Follow your own surgeon’s instructions on timing. Whether the implant has fully taken over is answered by a follow-up sleep study a few months later.

After activation, the stimulation starts low and is raised about every week as you tolerate it. You come back for a device check around ten weeks after surgery, and a sleep study at three to four months, in the lab or at home, shows whether the implant is controlling your apnea. Results come gradually: some people feel better within the first weeks, while for others finding the best settings takes months.

If that first study still shows significant apnea, that is common and usually something we can work on. In up to 30% of patients more adjustment is needed, often guided by an awake endoscopy in the office, followed by another sleep study.

Should you switch from CPAP to Inspire?

If CPAP is working, my advice is to stay with it, even if it is inconvenient. If you have made a serious effort, with different masks, humidification and pressure changes, and you still cannot sleep with it or it does not control your apnea, an implant is worth a careful look. What I ask patients to avoid is choosing surgery mainly because CPAP is a hassle.

Keep working on CPAP first if

  • You wear it most of the night and sleep well with it.
  • You have tried only one mask style, or your pressure has never been adjusted. Nasal pillows sometimes work where a full-face mask failed, and some people do much better on BiPAP.
  • What bothers you is mostly the routine: packing it, travel, how it looks.

It may be time to look at Inspire if

  • Claustrophobia or a smothering feeling has not improved with mask changes.
  • You cannot fall asleep with the mask on, or you pull it off in your sleep without knowing.
  • Leaks wake you through the night despite refitting.
  • You wear it all night and your apnea is still not controlled.

If most of your breathing events are central rather than obstructive, neither implant treats them; a different pressure device, such as BiPAP or adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV), is usually the better fit.

Surgery has risks, results are not guaranteed, and even a good result may not match CPAP worn all night. For the right patient, though, it can be a very good choice: an implant used every night can do more than a machine that cannot be worn. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s guideline points the same way on referral: it recommends that clinicians discuss referral to a sleep surgeon with adults who have obstructive sleep apnea, a BMI under 40, and who cannot tolerate or will not accept positive airway pressure.[16]

If you are weighing an implant, the Inspire vs Genio decision tool asks six short questions about what matters to you and prints a list of questions to bring to your surgeon.

References

Each figure on this page was checked against the source named below. Where a study was industry-funded or industry-authored, it is labeled.

  1. Strollo PJ Jr, Soose RJ, Maurer JT, et al. Upper-airway stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea. N Engl J Med. 2014;370(2):139–149. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1308659 — The STAR pivotal trial. Funded by Inspire Medical Systems. An uncontrolled cohort of 126 patients who had difficulty accepting or adhering to CPAP. Median AHI 29.3 to 9.0 at 12 months; 66% (83 of 126) met the success definition; procedure-related serious adverse events under 2%.
  2. Weaver TE, Grunstein RR. Adherence to continuous positive airway pressure therapy: the challenge to effective treatment. Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2008;5(2):173–178. doi:10.1513/pats.200708-119MG · Free full text — Review. With adherence defined as more than 4 hours a night, 46% to 83% of patients reported nonadherent; more than 6 hours a night linked to less sleepiness, better daily functioning and normal memory.
  3. Rotenberg BW, Murariu D, Pang KP. Trends in CPAP adherence over twenty years of data collection: a flattened curve. J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2016;45(1):43. doi:10.1186/s40463-016-0156-0 · Free full text — Systematic review of 82 studies, 1994–2015: overall non-adherence 34.1%, with no significant improvement over the period.
  4. Ravesloot MJL, de Vries N. Reliable calculation of the efficacy of non-surgical and surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea revisited. Sleep. 2011;34(1):105–110. doi:10.1093/sleep/34.1.105 · Free full text — Mathematical model: with moderate apnea, CPAP that removes every event must be used for 66.7% to 83.3% of the night to bring the whole-night AHI below 5.
  5. Woodson BT, Strohl KP, Soose RJ, et al. Upper airway stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea: 5-year outcomes. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2018;159(1):194–202. doi:10.1177/0194599818762383 — Industry-supported. 75% of the 71 patients who had a five-year sleep study met the success definition; 63% counting all 126, with deaths and device removals counted as failures.
  6. Heiser C, Steffen A, Boon M, et al. Post-approval upper airway stimulation predictors of treatment effectiveness in the ADHERE registry. Eur Respir J. 2019;53(1):1801405. doi:10.1183/13993003.01405-2018 — Industry-sponsored registry: Inspire Medical Systems is the lead sponsor (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02907398). 227 patients with final-visit data: median AHI 34 to 7.
  7. Nord RS, Fitzpatrick T IV, Pingree G, Islam A, Chafin A. Should lateral wall collapse be a contraindication for hypoglossal nerve stimulation? Am J Otolaryngol. 2024;45(1):104053. doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2023.104053 — My own series: 111 patients. AHI 32.8 to 10.4; 77.5% success under the under-15 rule, measured on all-night home studies where available and titration values otherwise; average use 6.4 hours a night. No funding received.
  8. Kaffenberger TM, Sina EM, Hambach B, Kaki P, Fuleihan A, Boon M, Huntley C. How we measure hypoglossal nerve stimulator outcome matters: titration vs single amplitude efficacy sleep studies. J Clin Sleep Med. 2025;21(1):47–53. doi:10.5664/jcsm.11328 — 61 patients tested both ways: 80% success on the titration study versus 46% on an all-night home study under the under-15 rule (84% versus 49% under the under-20 rule).
  9. Walia HK, Thompson NR, Strohl KP, et al. Upper airway stimulation vs positive airway pressure impact on BP and sleepiness symptoms in OSA. Chest. 2020;157(1):173–183. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2019.06.020 — Observational, propensity-matched: 201 implant patients from an international registry and 201 patients starting PAP at Cleveland Clinic, followed 2 to 6 months. PAP lowered diastolic blood pressure 3.7 mm Hg more; the implant improved sleepiness more and was used 6.2 hours a week more. The publisher’s funding record lists an Inspire grant.
  10. Heiser C, Steffen A, Strollo PJ Jr, Giaie-Miniet C, Vanderveken OM, Hofauer B. Hypoglossal nerve stimulation versus positive airway pressure therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep Breath. 2023;27(2):693–701. doi:10.1007/s11325-022-02663-6 · Free full text — Prospective study at two German university hospitals (Munich and Lübeck): 63 implant patients matched with 63 patients on first-line PAP, all with at least 12 months on their treatment. AHI 8.1 versus 6.6; use 5.0 versus 4.0 hours a night (not significant); mean disease alleviation 59% versus 51%. Several authors report grants and personal fees from Inspire Medical Systems.
  11. Pascoe M, Wang L, Aylor J, et al. Association of hypoglossal nerve stimulation with improvements in long-term, patient-reported outcomes and comparison with positive airway pressure for patients with obstructive sleep apnea. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2022;148(1):61–69. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2021.2245 · Free full text — Retrospective, single center: 85 implant patients matched with 217 PAP patients; implant outcomes at one year compared with PAP at three months. The senior author reports Inspire grant support for the ADHERE registry.
  12. Bentan MA, Nord R. Comprehensive analysis of adverse events associated with hypoglossal nerve stimulators: insights from the MAUDE database. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024;171(5):1580–1590. doi:10.1002/ohn.883 — My own analysis of 1,178 FDA adverse-event reports filed 2014–2023.
  13. Moroco AE, Wei Z, Byrd I, et al. Device-related outcomes following hypoglossal nerve stimulator implantation. J Clin Sleep Med. 2024;20(9):1497–1503. doi:10.5664/jcsm.11176 — 20,881 real-world implants. Passive surveillance with denominators estimated from device sales; the authors call their figures a likely underestimate.
  14. Huyett P, Suurna MV. Lateral axillary approach for placement of the … hypoglossal nerve stimulator implantable pulse generator. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2025;173(3):778–781. doi:10.1002/ohn.1321 — The only peer-reviewed publication on Inspire V; documents that the generator internalizes the respiratory sensor, and reports technique rather than outcomes.
  15. Lenze NR, Perera CD, Chhabra KR, Scott JW, Dedhia RC, Brenner MJ. Out-of-pocket costs and surprise billing in otolaryngology: a national database analysis. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2025;173(6):1393–1402. doi:10.1002/ohn.70035 — Commercial claims, adults 18–64, 2014–2022. Median out-of-pocket for hypoglossal nerve stimulator implantation: $263. Independent.
  16. Kent D, Stanley J, Aurora RN, et al. Referral of adults with obstructive sleep apnea for surgical consultation: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(12):2499–2505. doi:10.5664/jcsm.9592 · Free full text — Funded by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Recommendation 1 (strong): discuss referral to a sleep surgeon with adults with OSA and BMI under 40 who are intolerant or unaccepting of positive airway pressure.

Disclosures

I consulted for Inspire Medical Systems until 2025 and consult for AvivoMed. I have received research support from Nyxoah, the maker of Genio, and have been a paid member of the clinical events committee for Nyxoah-sponsored trials, including ACCCESS and BREATHE. Full disclosures are on my disclosures page.

No manufacturer reviewed, funded, or contributed to this page. Where a study cited here was industry-funded, the text says so.

Common questions about Inspire vs CPAP

Is Inspire better than CPAP?

Not for someone who can use CPAP. Worn all night, CPAP controls sleep apnea more completely than Inspire, needs no surgery, and costs far less. Inspire is the better choice for people who have made a real effort with CPAP and cannot use it, because a treatment used every night does more than one that is not worn. No randomized trial has compared the two directly.

Is Inspire as effective as CPAP?

While it is being worn, CPAP is more effective. In the trial that led to Inspire’s approval, the typical patient’s apnea events fell from about 29 an hour to 9, and two-thirds met the standard definition of success at one year. CPAP’s results in daily life depend on hours of use, and studies report that many patients wear it less than four hours a night, so for those patients the comparison can come out the other way.

Can I stop using CPAP after Inspire?

Yes, that is the goal: Inspire is meant to replace CPAP, and your surgeon will tell you when to stop using it. The implant is switched on about a month after surgery and adjusted over the following weeks. A sleep study three to four months after surgery shows whether it is controlling your apnea; if it is not, the settings are adjusted and the study is repeated.

Do you have to fail CPAP before getting Inspire?

Yes. The FDA label requires that CPAP has failed or could not be tolerated, and nearly every insurer wants that trial documented. A real trial usually means trying more than one mask style, humidification, and pressure changes, sometimes including BiPAP, with help from your sleep medicine team.

What are the drawbacks of Inspire compared to CPAP?

Inspire requires an outpatient operation with its own risks, including bleeding, infection, and temporary tongue or lip weakness. It takes a few months to reach full effect, removes fewer apnea events than CPAP worn all night, does not work for everyone, and needs a battery replacement operation about every 10 to 11 years.

Who should switch from CPAP to Inspire?

Adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea who have made a serious effort with CPAP and still cannot use it, whose weight is within the device’s limits, and whose sleep endoscopy shows an airway pattern the implant can treat. If CPAP is working, even if it is inconvenient, staying with it is usually the better choice.

Related reading

Try “success rate”, “BMI”, “Medicare”, “battery”, or “concentric collapse”.