Triple oro-nasal thermocouple, reusable

A thermocouple measures a temperature difference. Exhaled air is warmer than ambient air, so every breathing cycle produces a signal variation. When breathing stops, the variation disappears: exactly what is needed to mark an apnoea.

The three sensing points cover both possible routes. A patient breathing through the mouth produces nothing on a strictly nasal channel, and the recording shows an apnoea that does not exist. The two nasal points add redundancy: if one nostril is blocked, the other keeps working.

This sensor does not quantify. The AASM rule is clear on the point: the thermal signal serves to identify apnoeas, and the nasal pressure cannula serves to identify hypopnoeas. Fitting both is not excessive caution, it is the recommended configuration.

Reusable, it is cleaned and disinfected between two patients to the department protocol. Service life is decided by the cable far more than by the thermocouples themselves: coiling the cable tight and pulling on it to unplug is what finishes it. Unplug by the connector, store loose.

Three sizes. Adult suits the great majority of patients, child is narrower and shorter, neonate is dimensioned for a newborn face and obviously fits nobody else.