Treatment apparatus employing air-bag actuation for Sleep Apnea Syndrome

A new treatment apparatus for sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) has been proposed. Objective sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common case of the SAS. Airway of OSA patient is frequently obstructed during sleep because of tongue swallowing. This apparatus is composed of a pneumatically actuated flexible vest and a controller including an air pressure control unit. The flexible vest has sensors to detect airway obstructions and two airbags to conduct head tilt -chin lift maneuvers that are needed for airway establishment. It was demonstrated that the proposed treatment apparatus successfully detects the airway obstruction and automatically establish the airway by conducting the chin lift-head tilt maneuvers.