Medical Animation News

For individuals with sleep apnea, staying asleep can be exceedingly difficult. As part of an interactive, educational series sponsored by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers recently created a medical animation depicting the mechanics of sleep apnea and a common treatment called "CPAP."

Short for "continuous positive airway pressure," CPAP can radically reduce the incidence of snoring, repeated waking and partial or complete airway obstruction.

Sleep apnea is a chronic condition caused by obesity, certain airway conditions and medication use. Essentially, it causes breathing during sleep to get shallow or temporarily stop, leading to snoring or repeated awakening.

As you might imagine, ceasing to breathe during sleep is nothing to take lightly. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that the average apnea-related pause in breathing lasts between 10 and 20 seconds. These hitches can occur 30 or more times per hour, the organization adds.

Such breath-holding can lead to serious problems, both at night and throughout the day. The NIH reports that sleep apnea increases the risk of insomnia, exhaustion, automobile wrecks and work-related accidents.

The new visualization depicts one of the most effective sleep apnea treatments - the CPAP machine.

According to the 3D medical animation's narrator, sleep apnea is cyclical. It begins when a person with the condition starts drifting off to sleep, particularly if the individual dozes off on their back.

As the person becomes unconscious, the muscles at the back of the throat relax, allowing the glottis to hang down and obstruct the airway. With no breath going down into the lungs, the brain quickly detects a problem and reawakens itself. Then, the individual begins to doze again, and the cycle repeats itself.

In the medical visualization, a patient is depicted in cross-section so that his glottis and throat can be seen clearly. The narrator explains that a CPAP machine relieves apnea by pushing a stream of pressurized air through the nose and down the throat.

This airstream prevents the glottis from fully closing the airway and allows natural, unimpeded rest to occur, according to the clip.

The 3D medical visualization appears as part of a hypothetical vignette put together to train doctors to diagnose sleep apnea.

All told, around 18 million people in the U.S. suffer from this condition, according to the American Association for Respiratory Care.

Amerra provides custom medical animations, medical illustrations and interactive medical software. For additional information please contact us at 1.888.9AMERRA or e-mail info@amerra.com.