Importance

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Abstract

A valving arrangement primarily designed and intended for use in a negative pressure ventilator system. The valve arrangement has a uniquely designed valve that enables the ventilator to perform a number of operations simply by manipulation of a single, one-piece valve member within a valve housing. The valve housing has multiple inlets and outlets and the valve member can be rotated within it to present a variety of pressure cycles to the patient. In the preferred manner of operation, the present invention selectively applies negative and positive pressures to the patient during different portions of the cycle. In this regard, the valve member is structured so that negative and positive pressures are never at the same time delivered to the patient. The valve arrangement is compact and lightweight. It is also functionally superior to prior designs that can only supply whatever pressure is being created by the blower. In contrast, the valve of the present invention can create pressures from zero to the maximum blower pressures (both negative and positive) by positioning the valve to selectively split the blower pressure (negative or positive) to ambient air.

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First Claim