Patent ID: 7059328

Claim:
A ventilation interface, comprising: (a) 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; (b) a pair of hollow, flexible, resilient nasal inserts, each nasal insert having a base end connected to the top wall of said nasal cannula and an open distal tip end, each nasal insert being oval in cross-section and defining a conduit forming an air passage in communication with said air chamber, each said nasal insert having a flange formed as a bead disposed about the distal tip end; and (c) a pair of bleeder norts defined through the bottom wall of said nasal cannula, each said bleeder art being axially aligned with a separate one of said nasal inserts, 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, and the bleeder port further having a substantially oval distal end; (d) wherein each said nasal insert is capable of being compressed and inserted into a patient's naris to a patient's mucosal membrane and being retained therein solely by said flange, by the resilience of said nasal insert, and by lateral pressure against the naris from ventilator air flow through each said nasal insert.