An Investigation into Miniaturization and Compactness of Lung Therapy Devices

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a significant spoiler of a quality lifestyle. It is characterized by an intermittent partial or complete obstruction of airflow in the upper airway with reduced oxygen saturation during sleep. Untreated OSA disease could lead to fragmented sleep, poor quality of relaxation, negatively affecting patients' night and daytime functioning, continuous fatigue and tiredness, anxiety and eventually may significantly contribute to cardiovascular and mental illness.

Current options for treating patients with OSA include lifestyle changes, weight loss, quitting smoking and drinking, sleep positional therapy, positive airway pressure (PAP), oral appliances such as mandibular advancement devices, hypoglossal nerve stimulation and surgical interventions. Most physicians and medical staff consider continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy a first-line treatment modality for OSA patients because it effectively reduces apnea and hypopnea events and shows significant improvements in subjective and objective sleepiness. Despite these benefits of CPAP therapy, nightly adherence and commitment to CPAP therapy remain challenging, as many studies show that after the first month of CPAP usage, about half of the patients quit or require better adherence.

This research aims to address CPAP adherence barriers by exploring innovative engineering strategies for device miniaturization and patient-centered optimization. It analyzes the comparative roles of static and dynamic pressures in the upper airway during CPAP therapy as well as investigates single-source and multi-source micro-pressure delivery approaches alongside advanced passive breathing conditioning and humidification techniques. These include emerging novel materials and technologies such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), micro-scale compression technologies, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) polymers, Nafion™ tubing and Sodalime.

As the main components of most lung support devices are the Air Delivery Unit (ADU), humidifier, connecting tube and mask, the proposed miniaturization process can be generalized from the concept of attaching a miniaturized CPAP device. Therefore, the ultimate objective of the study is to promote a next-generation CPAP therapy system that integrates design principles with advanced materials and system architectures to develop a miniaturized, efficient and patient-focused CPAP system with reduced side effects and maintained standard therapeutic effectiveness and humidification performance while improving portability, usability and long-term patient adherence.