Stimulation for treating sleep disordered breathing
A device for treating sleep disordered breathing includes a stimulation element to stimulate an airway-patency-related nerve.
1. A device for treating obstructive sleep apnea, comprising: a non-cardiac stimulation means for stimulating an upper airway patency-related nerve, wherein, the non-cardiac stimulation element comprises an implantable electrode and/or an implantable pulse generator electrically connectable to the implantable electrode according to a first stimulation therapy protocol including alternating stimulation periods and non-stimulation periods in which a timing of the stimulation periods is asynchronous relative to patient breathing, wherein a duration of each respective stimulation period is greater than a duration of each respective non-stimulation period, and wherein the duration of each respective stimulation period is based on a reference respiratory-related parameter.
2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the asynchronous timing of the stimulation relative to patient breathing comprises the timing being not based on actively-sensed respiration during application of the first stimulation therapy protocol.
3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the reference respiratory-related parameter comprises a reference respiratory pattern.
4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the reference respiratory pattern comprises a reference respiratory cycle, and wherein a duration of each respective stimulation period is greater than a duration of an inspiratory phase of the reference respiratory cycle.
5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the reference respiratory-related parameter is based on stable respiration.
6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the reference respiratory-related parameter comprises a reference respiratory cycle and wherein a combined duration of a respective one of the stimulation periods and a respective one of the non-stimulation periods is less than a duration of the reference respiratory cycle.
7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the reference respiratory-related parameter comprises a reference respiratory cycle and wherein the combined duration of a respective one of the stimulation periods and of a respective one of the non-stimulation periods is no greater than a duration of a reference respiratory cycle.
8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the duration of the respective stimulation periods remain uniform.
9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the reference respiratory-related parameter comprises a reference respiratory cycle, and wherein the combined duration of a respective one of the stimulation periods and of a respective one of the non-stimulation periods is less than 30 percent of duration of a reference respiratory cycle.
10. The device of claim 1 , wherein a respective one of the stimulation periods and a respective one of the non-stimulation periods are in a proportion of at least 1.5 to 1.
11. The device of claim 10 , wherein a duration of a respective one of the stimulation periods exceeds the duration of a respective one of the non-stimulation periods by a factor of 3.
12. The device of claim 1 , wherein a combination of a respective one of the stimulation periods and a respective one of the non-stimulation periods comprises a stimulation cycle, and wherein a duration of the respective one of the stimulation periods comprises at least 80 percent of a duration of the stimulation cycle.
13. The device of claim 1 , wherein each respective stimulation period comprises continuous pulsed stimulation.
14. The device of claim 1 , comprising:
a processor; and
a non-volatile computer readable medium storing instructions, executable on the processor, to implement the first stimulation protocol.
15. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first stimulation therapy protocol is to be applied during a treatment period in which the patient is to engage in sleeping behavior.
16. A device for treating obstructive sleep apnea, comprising: a non-cardiac means for stimulating an upper airway patency-related nerve wherein, the non-cardiac stimulation element comprises an implantable electrode and/or an implantable pulse generator electrically connectable to the implantable electrode, according to a first stimulation therapy protocol including alternating stimulation periods and non-stimulation periods in which a timing of the stimulation periods is asynchronous relative to patient breathing, wherein a duration of each respective stimulation period is greater than a duration of each respective non-stimulation period, wherein each stimulation period comprises continuous pulsed stimulation, wherein the first stimulation protocol is to deliver multiple stimulation periods within a duration of a reference respiratory cycle.
17. The device of claim 16 , wherein the duration of each respective non-stimulation period is at least less than half of the duration of each respective stimulation period.
18. The device of claim 16 , wherein the reference respiratory cycle comprises at least one of:
a historical patient-specific reference respiratory cycle; and
a multiple patient reference respiratory cycle.
19. The device of claim 16 , wherein the first stimulation therapy protocol is to deliver at least some of the multiple stimulation periods within a duration of an inspiratory phase of the reference respiratory cycle.
20. The device of claim 16 , wherein the duration of each respective stimulation period is at least less than 30 percent of a duration of the reference respiratory cycle.
21. The device of claim 16 , wherein a combination of a respective one of the stimulation periods and a respective one of the non-stimulation periods comprises a stimulation cycle, and wherein the first stimulation therapy protocol is to deliver more than one stimulation cycle within a duration of the reference respiratory cycle.
22. A device for treating obstructive sleep apnea, comprising: a non-cardiac means for stimulating an upper airway patency-related nerve, wherein, the non-cardiac stimulation element comprises an implantable electrode and/or an implantable pulse generator electrically connectable to the implantable electrode, according to a first stimulation therapy protocol including alternating stimulation periods and non-stimulation periods in which a timing of the stimulation periods is asynchronous relative to patient breathing, wherein a duration of each respective stimulation period is greater than a duration of each respective non-stimulation period, and wherein a combined duration of a respective one of the stimulation periods and a respective one of the non-stimulation periods is greater than a duration of a reference respiratory cycle.
23. The device of claim 22 , wherein the duration of a respective one of the stimulation periods is greater than the duration of the reference respiratory cycle.