Patent ID: 7188624

Claim:
A ventilation interface, comprising: a nasal cannula, the cannula being a hollow, arcuate body and a semi-cylindrical bottom wall defining an air chamber, the body having cylindrical tubes at opposing ends of the body adapted for connection to ventilator supply tubes; a pair of hollow, flexible, resilient nasal inserts, each nasal insert having a base end connected to a top wall of said nasal cannula and an open distal tip end, each distal tip end being substantially linear and having a substantially oval cross-section, the nasal inserts defining a conduit forming an air passage in communication with said air chamber, each said nasal insert having a seal incorporated as part of the construction of the nasal insert; wherein each said nasal insert is capable of being compressed and inserted into a patient's naris to a patient's mucosal membrane and said nasal insert is retained in said naris by at least one of said seal, the resilience of said nasal insert, and lateral pressure against the naris from ventilator air flow through each said nasal insert; and a pair of bleeder ports defined through the bottom wall of said nasal cannula, each said bleeder port being axially aligned with a separate one of said nasal inserts and further including an upper nipple projecting into said air chamber and a lower nipple depending from the bottom wall of said nasal cannula, the bleeder port being defined through said upper and lower nipples.