Inflatable Vest for COPD Patients

An inflatable vest system helps to clear airways in children and adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis, small-airway abnormalities, and emphysema.

Called The Vest, the system consists of an inflatable vest connected by hoses to a small air-pulse generator. The generator rapidly inflates and deflates the vest, which oscillates the chest wall up to 25 times per second, creating airflow within the lungs. This process moves mucus from the smaller airways toward the larger airways where it can be cleared by coughing or suctioning. The Vest system was developed by Advanced Respiratory (St. Paul, MN, USA), which notes that the system is currently prescribed for more than 20,000 US patients with airway clearance needs.

A similar system called The Link, also from Advanced Respiratory, helps organ donors to clear excess or retained secretions from the airways in their lungs, which may significantly improve the quality and quantity of those lungs for transplantation. Currently, a number of donor lungs are rejected for transplantation because they are damaged by inflammation, excess secretions, contamination, or mucus plugging. A recent study found that administering airway clearance therapy to potential lung donors can greatly increase the rate of lung procurement and result in a higher quality of allograft.




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Advanced Respiratory