Patient Interface Segmented Sealing for Comfortable Pressure Maintenance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing respiratory therapy devices, such as CPAP masks, suffer from discomfort, poor fit, and difficulty in use, leading to reduced patient compliance due to factors like obtrusiveness, aesthetics, and cost, which can impact the effectiveness of treatments for respiratory disorders.
Innovation Solution
A patient interface with a plenum chamber and seal-forming structure designed to form a seal around the nares and mouth, featuring lateral support portions with higher resistance to deformation, and a stabilizing structure to maintain the seal effectively, allowing for improved comfort and fit, even during sleep.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a seal-forming structure is used to form a seal around the nares and mouth, then the therapeutic pressure is maintained and treatment effectiveness is improved, but the device becomes more obtrusive and less comfortable for the patient
Solution Approach 1:
The patient interface is divided into separate components: a nasal portion with nasal pillows that seal around the nares, and an oral portion that seals around the mouth. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently for both sealing effectiveness and comfort, reducing the obtrusiveness while maintaining therapeutic pressure.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the seal-forming structure have different properties tailored to their specific functions. The nasal pillows have specific softness and contouring for nasal comfort, while the oral portion has different characteristics for mouth sealing. This local differentiation improves overall comfort without compromising the reliability of pressure maintenance.
2Stability of the object's composition
If lateral support portions with higher resistance to deformation are added to the seal-forming structure, then the seal stability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lateral support portions are strategically positioned and dimensioned asymmetrically within the seal-forming structure, providing enhanced deformation resistance only where needed for seal stability. This asymmetric reinforcement maintains stability without requiring uniform complexity throughout the entire device.
Solution Approach 2:
The lateral support portions are integrated into the seal-forming structure itself rather than being separate components. This merging of support functionality into the existing seal structure provides stability enhancement without adding discrete parts, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the seal-forming structure is designed to accommodate different face shapes and sizes, then the adaptability is improved, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The seal-forming structure incorporates flexible and adjustable elements that can dynamically adapt to different face shapes and sizes. The lateral support portions can deform within controlled limits to accommodate anatomical variations, reducing the need for high manufacturing precision while maintaining adaptability across diverse patient populations.
Solution Approach 2:
The design allows for adjustment of key parameters such as seal pressure, lateral support resistance, and component positioning to accommodate different face geometries. By making parameters adjustable rather than fixed, the system achieves high adaptability without requiring extremely precise manufacturing for each individual case.
Data Source
AI summary
A patient interface may include: a plenum chamber having an oral portion and a nasal portion, and a positioning and stabilising structure configured to generate a force to hold the seal-forming structure on the patient's head. The plenum chamber may include: a seal-forming structure constructed and arranged to form a seal with the patient's face, said nasal portion of the seal-forming structure having at least one nasal hole, said oral portion of the seal-forming structure having an oral hole, and a shell having one or more plenum chamber inlet ports sized and structured to receive the flow of air at the therapeutic pressure for breathing by a patient throughout the patient's respiratory cycle in use, and the shell supporting the seal-forming structure.