Has anyone tried an Aerogen Solo nebulizer?
I’ve recently been given an Aerogen Solo nebulizer with the controller. Wow! This cut my Tobramycin nebbing time in half. I was using the Pari LC Plus with a Pari ProNebMax. It was taking me 20 minutes to neb 7% and then 40 minutes! To neb the Tobi. With the Aerogen Solo, nebbing Tobi is about 15 minutes.
Sterilization with Aerogen Solo is complicated though. All the literature says it’s for continuous use, no sterilizing for 28 days. This is where I get nervous. I’m used to boiling 10 minutes 2x/d. Pseudomonas is no joke &, while they say I’ll never get rid of it, I’d like to keep it in the lowest numbers as possible.
Does anyone have experience with this nebulizer? We really should all be using something like this due to the data on lung delivery, the speed, & the portability. Cost is likely the issue it’s not more widely covered.
Thanks for any input.
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It's been some time since I looked at these but I recall the Aerogen Solo nebulizer with the controller seemed more of a hospital type of device than a home based solution as its price was many thousands of dollars. It's great it's sped up your neb time. As for the sterilization challenges hospitals likely get around that by replacing the nebulizer part. I'm curious to learn how you acquired the Aerogen. I agree with you we should all be using excellent delivery nebulizers to help manage this disease.
This is just a thought but it seems like hospital neb supplies generally are used single patient for short term (during the hospital stay) so the focus is not on long term sterilization. Now that these devices are finding their way into patients homes it seems to be a common refrain - “how to sterilize for everyday use long term.” When I was at the NTMir conference in Berkeley I asked the same of the group distributing the Volara, and while most of the reps seemed unconcerned, I could see the light bulb go off for one of the reps. She got it. And didn’t have a good answer for it. So maybe this is something the manufacturers will get more in tune with as these devices find their way into patients in-home long term care regimens. In the meantime, have you tried calling the manufacturer and raising the issue with them? They might have some interesting data that supports their recommendations and at a minimum I think it’s important that we as a patient community speak up about our concerns regarding the products we are using. The manufacturers won’t seek to address concerns they are not aware of.