Emphysema Treatment

Emphysema is incurable disease. The treatment focus of prolonging the patient life and increase their quality of life. The most important and the first things to do in emphysema treatment is stop smoking. With this way, emphysema will progression will be slower and patient will be ready in treatment for emphysema.

Emphysema Treatment

Emphysema is also treated by supporting the breathing with:

• Pulmonary rehabilitation
  Pulmonary rehabilitation is the key of emphysema treatment, it can be very helpful to optimize the patient's quality of life and teach the patient how to actively manage his or her care.
  
• Anticholinergics
  It is a substance that blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the central and the peripheral nervous system, such as dicyclomine and atropine.
  
• Bronchodilators
  Bronchodilators is very useful to relaxing constricted airways, this makes relieve coughing, shortness of breath.
  
• Steroid medication (inhaled or oral)
  Inhaled steroid will help reduce emphysema symptoms that associated with asthma and bronchitis, inhaled steroid example is aerosol sprays. Compared to oral steroid, inhaled steroid has fewer side effects. However, the use of inhaled steroid for a long time will weaken your bone, increase the risk of high blood pressure, cataracts and diabetes.
  
• Supplemental oxygen
  It is the only non-surgical emphysema treatment that proven can prolong life in emphysema patients. The use of supplemental oxygen is usually more than 20 hours per day.
  
• Surgery
  A surgery called Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) can improve the quality of life for certain carefully selected patients. This surgical method works by removing small wedges of damaged lung tissue. It will help emphysema patient breathing better. It can be done by different methods, some of which are minimally invasive.
  
• Lung transplantation
  When emphysema becomes serious, lung transplantation can be the option. However, very few emphysema patient that are strong enough to undergo lung transplantation, even though it can “cured” emphysema but it is very risky. The combination of a patient's age, oxygen deprivation and the side-effects of the medications used to treat emphysema cause damage to the kidneys, heart and other organs. Surgical transplantation also requires the patient to take an anti-rejection drug regimen which suppresses the immune system, and can lead to microbial infection of the patient.

Main article - Emphysema