Description:

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a debilitating condition that causes sufferers to periodically stop breathing as they sleep. Left untreated, OSA negates the benefits of sleep and severely impacts quality of life. This can worsen existing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Sufferers also usually perform poorly at work and are susceptible to accidents.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is commonly used to treat this condition. The CPAP mask plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the therapy as it delivers air from the CPAP device to the patient, enabling the patient to breathe and sleep without interruption.

One of the most common CPAP mask categories is the full-face mask, which traditionally seals around the mouth and over the nose. However, this cushion design can put excessive pressure on the bridge of the nose. The large stability bar, which holds the cushion in place, also sits between the eyes and impedes vision, preventing wearers from reading or watching TV before bed.

In short, CPAP therapy should provide people with a better quality of life. But for some, traditionally oversized and uncomfortable full-face masks can leave them feeling claustrophobic and anxious.

While the industry sought to address this issue and make the contact point on the bridge of the nose more comfortable, we started to expand our imagination. What if we could entirely remove contact with the nasal-bridge area, plus eliminate the stability bar, all without compromising seal performance?

This prompted the arduous design journey to produce a compact and high-performing full-face mask: F&P Evora Full.

This development endeavour took us through unchartered waters, particularly when innovating an under-the-nose cushion. It needed to fit the complex and wide-ranging facial geometries of individuals and different ethnicities.

To fully understand these face shapes, we developed an anthropometric database. We scanned a wide range of faces and created 3D plastic facial models.

This resulted in the development of three cushion sizes that could serve 95% of the population. We made the silicone around the sub-nasal contact region extremely thin to reduce pressure. Further innovation related to the silicone thickness enables the cushion to inflate slightly to suit the individual’s face shape, thus reducing the compulsion to strap the mask too tightly.

The stability bar, which was traditionally crucial to keep the mask in place, was removed and integrated into a horizontal frame design, called Stability Wings. These extended to the side of the cushion, so as not to inhibit the wearer’s field of vision. Constant fine-tuning of prototypes ensured the Stability Wings remained low-profile, while still holding the cushion in place during sleep.

Care by Design is Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s brand promise. It encapsulates our dedication to improving outcomes for patients, driving our innovation and patient-centric design. We are proud of Evora Full’s deep patient research and the innovative thinking by our team of industrial designers and engineers. Together, we have enabled patients to sleep more comfortably and freely with life-changing therapy technology.