Vibrating membrane inhaler

Vibrating) membrane inhalers with a high output rate based on different aerosol generation principles, designs and performances... 

Jet nebulisers in the home situation are increasingly replaced by (vibrating) membrane inhalers which give better control over the medicine delivery to the respiratory tract than the classic jet and ultrasonic nebulisers, and may increase the adherence to the therapy. 

Currently, suspensions prepared from micronised active substances are the only marketed dehvery system for nebulisation of poorly water soluble substances such as steroids and cyclosporine [53]. Several problems are inherent in nebulising micro-suspensions and they vary from non-optimised lung deposition for the active substance to heterodispersity of the active substance concentration in the aerosol droplets and poor compatibility with different types of nebulisers, particularly ultrasonic devices. Suspensions may also have poor stability and the two components (solid and liquid) tend to separate with time within the formulation by sedimentation or flocculation, depending on the particle density relative to that of the liquid. Several jet nebulisers can deliver suspensions quite effectively, even independently of the primary particle size [54], but ultrasonic devices may convert primarily the continuous phase into aerosol whereas vibrating mesh inhalers can be blocked by particles being larger than the pore diameter of the membrane. 

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