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Nasal cannula

There are a number of persons requiring supplemental oxygen such as after surgery to aid in the healing process, and persons having lungs of limited capacity due to disease or lung damage which require supplemental oxygen to assist in everyday life. These people having respiratory problems are typically assisted in breathing by providing a gas source, which provides pressurized ambient or oxygen enriched air to the lungs of the patient via a nasal cannula. In the field of oxygen delivery systems, various systems are known for delivering gas, such as air or oxygen, from a supply tank to a patient via a cannula tube system. Nasal oxygen cannulas are utilized to deliver oxygen directly to nasal airways in order to infuse oxygen into the inspirational airflow of patients in need of such therapy. Typically, these systems include a relatively large bore plastic supply tube as a conduit for providing gas flow from a pressurized oxygen source to proximal ends of a pair of plastic oxygen delivery tubes having relatively smaller bores. Such systems include nasal cannula apparatuses comprising one or more tubes that attach to a tank and provide oxygen to a patient via the patient's nostrils. Many people wear nasal cannula to assist them in breathing. Typically, pure oxygen or air enriched in oxygen is provided under slight positive pressure through plastic tubes to the nostrils of the wearer of the cannula. This way, more oxygen is provided to the lungs of the wearer. Nasal cannula assemblies have largely replaced oxygen masks and provide much greater comfort than nasal catheters. The use of such devices has proved sufficiently beneficial so that they are widely used not only by respiratory patients, but also for a wide variety of patients who require less energy to breathe with the added oxygen supplied by such assemblies. A nasal cannula comprises essentially a nasal assembly, or nosepiece, with a hollow main body having two directed orifices near or in a patient nostrils. The gas is supplied to the main body that acts as a distributing manifold. Typically, the orifices are placed at the end of nasal extension tubes extending upwardly from a main body portion and in communication with the main body.

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