Tottori University

Katsumasa Fujii

Toru Sato

Naoto Okazaki

Toshihisa Hasegawa

Kazukiyo Takano

Steady insufflation of a gas starts before the beginning of each inhalation, and a pulse-like peak flow insufflation of the gas is superposed on the steady insufflation for a short period of times at the beginning of the inhalation, and the steady insufflation is terminated before the end of the inhalation, so as to improve the inhalation efficiency of insufflated gas extremely.

Breath synchronized gas-insufflation device and method therefor

A breath-synchronized concentrated-oxygen supplier comprising an oxygen concentrator for producing and storing oxygen-enriched gas, and a buffer tank having an inlet connected to the oxygen concentrator and an outlet for temporarily storing the oxygen-enriched gas obtained from the concentrator. A valve is mounted in the outlet of the buffer tank so as to control flow of the oxygen-enriched gas from the buffer tank to the respiratory system of a living body, the valve having a gas flow path that is open to the atmosphere. A sensor, provided for sensing the respiration of the living body, generates an output signal indicative of the inhalation and exhalation phases of the respiration. An input device, on which a ratio between the entire length of the inhalation phase and a specific end portion thereof is set is included as is a regulator responsive to the sensor and input device for detecting the duration of each inhalation phase in succession based on the output signal from the sensor. The regulator also opens the valve at the beginning of each inhalation phase, and maintains the open time of the valve based on a period determined by a combination of averaging the preceding inhalation durations and the ratio set on the input device. Oxygen-enriched gas is supplied to the living body during each inhalation phase except for the specific end portion thereof, and the buffer tank acts to make the initial flow rate of the oxygen-enriched gas higher than the steady flow rate thereof in each inhalation phase.

Growing community of inventors

both Okayama, Japan

Katsumasa Fujii