Asthma is mostly incurable; however there are certain procedures to treat severe asthma in adults, like bronchial thermoplasty. It is meant to control asthma in long term, even though there can be a possibility of deterioration initially, which can lead to hospitalization of the patient.
The procedure is done to open the airways in a human body to make them breath easily. This is a relatively new process and not a lot of people are aware of its practice. Below given is some basic information about bronchial thermoplasty :
Few Facts about Bronchial Thermoplasty
There are not many useful treatments for asthma and Bronchial thermoplasty is one treatment used to help patients suffering from it.
Procedure
The procedure is supposed to last three separate sessions, spread across three weeks. Each session comprises of less than one hour and in each session, one section of the lung is treated. In these sessions, little amount of heat is used to treat the muscles in the lung which becomes too tight during an asthma attack and makes it difficult to breath.
Who can Undergo this Treatment?
Not everyone can benefit from this procedure. A patient must be between 18 to 65 years old to be able to receive some amount of relief through this process. The process is suitable for people who have asthma attacks that cannot be controlled by using asthma medicines or inhalers. Also in order to benefit from this procedure, the patient needs to have gone smoking free for a year.
Possible Benefits
There is one primary benefit that is associated with this process that is fewer attacks of asthma. Asthma is not curable but the frequency or severity of the attacks can be controlled to an extent by using this procedure. This means, lesser visits to the hospital and lesser loss of working days. Moreover, after the treatment, a patient can feel better up to 5 years.
Safety Quotient
Bronchial thermoplasty is more or less a safe procedure, with very less chances of harmful side effects. Generally one feels sleepy after the procedure. It is also normal to cough or feel short of breath for a while. But these conditions generally do not last beyond a week. In some rare cases initial hospitalization is also required.
These, in short are some of the important information about bronchial thermoplasty that you might need to know, before you actually plan to get this done to yourself, or someone else.
