Changes

A '''There are 3 basic types of humidifiers for CPAP Humidifier''' adds moisture to low humidity airmachines. Generally, there are two types:

::* '''Passover humidificationHeated'''humidificationHeat and moisture exchange (HME) humidification Passover Humidification: Heated The passover humidification is unheated and just passes the air over the surface of some water. The water chamber that will evaporate into the moving air thereby increasing the humidity. The amount of humidification accomplished is minimal and not controllable but it does not require any electricity nor does it require maintaining the cleanliness of the heater surface and heat transfer plate. It can increase patient comfort by eliminating reducing the dryness of the compressed air. The temperature can usually be adjusted or turned off to act as a passive humidifier if desired. In general, a heated passive humidifier is either integrated into the a separate unit or has and does not have a separate power source (i.e. plug). Heated Humidification::* '''Passive''': Air is blown through an unheated Heated water chamber and is dependent on ambient air temperature. It is not as effective as the heated humidifier described above, but still that can increase patient comfort by eliminating the dryness of the compressed air. In generalHeated humidification is basically the same as passover humidification with the addition of a heat source to increase and control the evaporation of water into the air going to the victim, errrr scratch that, patient. The simpler heated humidifiers merely have a passive humidifier number of manually adjusted settings that make the humidity increase more or less. The more sophisticated heated humidifiers have control circuits that control the humidity going to the mask. The advantages are the ability to add more humidity to the air and the ability to control the amount added, The disadvantages are more electricity required and more maintenance. HME: Heat and moisture exchange (HME) humidification picks up moisture from the humid exhaled air and gives it up to the less humid air being inhaled. It is done by a separate unit porous media that has been treated with something like silica gel which picks up moisture from the air. HME humidification is simple, inexpensive and does can be made relatively small (nice for travel-especially in the outback). It is not have controllable or adjustable and must be replaced on a weekly basis. The initial investment is small but over a year ti becomes significant enough to be a power sourceconsideration.