Continuous positive airway pressure therapy uses a device that is responsible for maintaining a constant flow of air into the lungs, this makes the trachea does not close and the person does not experience sleep apneas. This therapy is used for those patients who, due to various respiratory problems, have obstructive breathing events at night, which is why the CPAP device is so useful for these patients. After starting to use this equipment at night patients begin to experience better concentration and focus, less fatigue during the day, more productivity and physical energy etc..

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These devices are extremely delicate, they have differential pressure sensors, microcontrollers, surface mount components, pneumatic valves and other elements that must be handled with extreme care so as not to uncalibrate them and cause damage to the equipment and the patient. These CPAP units that I received are from a hospital in my city, and basically the maintenance that I performed on them was simple.

The electronic control card and the ac/dc power supply were given an anticorrosive chemical bath to remove the sulfate from the contacts produced by humidity and dust, the equipment also has air filters to keep out the dust, these filters were removed and the dust was reinstalled, The CPAP has a removable SD card which stores patient information, this memory was extracted and all data were deleted to free up space, the dust was removed with a blower and finally disinfected with quaternary ammonium, remember that this equipment can harbor bacteria and viruses, so maintenance should be done with protective equipment.

In the picture above, I show you the mainboard of the unit. As you can see, there are a lot of surface mount components, a BIOS stack, the display, microcontrollers, transistors and other components that are susceptible to static from the human body, that is why I am wearing an antistatic glove in the picture.

In this picture you can see a differential pressure sensor, it is very important to verify in this type of equipment that the sensor is in good condition, eventually the connectors where the air hoses go can be broken, this can cause air leaks and any other damage to the equipment. Differential pressure sensors are used to make two measurements at two different points, that pressure difference is important information for the correct operation of the equipment. Therefore, this sensor must be handled very carefully and cleaned gently with a swab and absolute alcohol, also check that the hoses are not obstructed.

Armando el equipo otra vez/Assembling the equipment again

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At this point we are at the end of the maintenance, as you can see I have connected the equipment to the mains to verify that it is turning on correctly and without errors, once I have proven that it turns on correctly we are going to close the equipment.

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Well, here I had finished with the first CPAP were four that needed preventive maintenance, but as you can see already there I had assembled the first team successfully and without problems. I hope this publication has contributed something of value to the community, as some of you know I am a specialist in medical equipment and I am mainly in charge of the repair and maintenance of them.

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¡Gracias por su tiempo!

Texto en inglés traducido en www.deepl.com

Imágenes originales y una de las fotografías fue tomada del portal libre de derechos e autor www.istockphoto.com