Patent NZ-778249-A (NZ)
Title: Headgear for a patient interface
Inventor: WAGNER STEWART
IPC: A61M16/08
Filed: 2019-08-20
Abstract: The present inventions seeks to address problems of the prior art relating to comfort, cost, efficacy, ease of use and manufacturability. The present invention relates to a patient interface comprising: a plenum chamber pressurisable to a therapeutic pressure of at least 6 cmH2O above ambient air pressure, said plenum chamber including a plenum chamber inlet port sized and structured to receive a flow of air at the therapeutic pressure for breathing by a patient; a seal-forming structure constructed and arranged to form a seal with a region of the patient’s face surrounding an entrance to the patient’s airways for sealed delivery of a flow of air at a therapeutic pressure of at least 6 cmH2O above ambient air pressure throughout the patient’s respiratory cycle in use, said seal-forming structure having a hole therein such that the flow of air at said therapeutic pressure is delivered to at least an entrance to the patient’s nares, the seal-forming structure constructed and arranged to maintain said therapeutic pressure in the plenum chamber throughout the patient’s respiratory cycle in use; a positioning and stabilising structure to provide a force to hold the seal-forming structure in a therapeutically effective position on a patient’s head, the positioning and stabilising structure comprising: a pair of gas delivery tubes to receive the flow of air from a connection port on top of the patient’s head and to deliver the flow of air to the entrance of the patient’s airways via the seal-forming structure, each of the pair of gas delivery tubes being constructed and arranged to contact, in use, at least a region of the patient’s head superior to an otobasion superior of the patient’s head, and each gas delivery tube comprising: a tube wall configured, in use, to overlie the patient’s head along a path from a superior portion of the patient’s head to the seal forming structure passing between an eye and an ear of the patient; a tab connected to the tube wall and configured, in use, to be located superior to the otobasion superior of the patient’s head; and a slit formed in the tab and spaced posteriorly in use from a slit-adjacent portion of the path of the tube wall, wherein the slit has a posterosuperior-anteroinferior orientation in use and forms an oblique angle with a tangent of the path of the tube wall at the slit-adjacent portion; and a strap constructed and arranged to contact, in use, a region of the patient’s head inferior to or overlaying an occipital bone of the patient’s head, the strap being configured to connect to and between the slits; and a vent structure to allow a continuous flow of gases exhaled by the patient from an interior of the plenum chamber to ambient, said vent structure being sized and shaped to maintain the therapeutic pressure in the plenum chamber in use, wherein the patient interface is configured to allow the patient to breath from ambient through their mouth in the absence of a flow of pressurised air through the plenum chamber inlet port, or the patient interface is configured to leave the patient’s mouth uncovered;