F&P Mask Vent Holes

[dkemp234]

My RT recently had me switch from a Resmed Airtouch F20 mask to an F&P Vitera mask.  The F&P mask has 36 small vent holes located near the top of the nose.  These holes put out a steady stream of air which is very irritating to my wife because it blows across on her when I am sleeping facing her.

1.  Can someone tell me why these holes are needed on the F&P mask but there are none on the Resmed Airtouch or Airfit masks that I have used?

2.  Does the volume of air blowing out these holes count as leakage on my Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset?  If not, how does the machine tell the difference between this air and actual mask leakage?

[KeepSmiling]

All CPAP mask vent/expel air. If they don't where will the air going in go?

Resmed shows leakage above around 25litre/min.

Masks have (used to) a graph of flow litre/min verses pressure. If this is the same as the Resmed mask, then you will see no difference.

[GuyScharf]

All masks have vent holes. Different masks have them in different places. The vent holes for the ResMed F20 mask are in the elbow.

The CPAP machine subtracts the expected leakage through the vents from the total leakage measured to determine the leakage being reported. Other machines report leakage in different ways. Some, including Philips, report both total leakage and "excess leakage." Excess leakage comes from mask and mouth leaks.

[ketanerp]

I came across same question before 2 days. I have started using AirFit F20. and Air is flowing from the holes. Earlier I was using P10 Nasal Pillow and Did not noticed any Air is flowing out. My wife is complaint same to me like your.
Even I am not feeling refreshed as compare to P10. I feel its a huge air leak that unnoticed in OSCAR.
with P10 I have problem of Nose pain when I wake up.

[Gideon]

You have just come across a good reason to not use that mask, marital bliss.

All masks have holes and vents and he volume of air is carefully engineered and is accounted for via mask settings. Main purpose is to prevent rebreathing of CO2

[dkemp234]

Ketanerp,

I found that the air on the Airfit F20 is coming from the side vent holes on the elbow that  connects the mask to the tubing.  This is normal, and the Airsense 10 is calibrated to deduct this airflow from the reported leakage.  Therefore it is not included in leakage in OSCAR either.  These holes direct the air sideways out of the elbow which has not been a problem for me.

My problem was with the air escaping through the vent holes on the F&P Vitera mask.  These holes direct the air straight ahead out of the mask, and this was what hit my wife in the face.  I have stopped using the F&P mask for now, and went back to the AirFit F20.

[dkemp234]

Gideon,

It is a good reason indeed!  At least the AirFit/AirTouch F20 vent holes are at right angles so the air doesn't hit someone in the face!