Franciscan St. Francis Health offers breakthrough
treatment option for patients
INDIANAPOLIS – Imagine trying to breathe through a straw, struggling and gasping day in and day out. That’s how many patients feel who suffer from severe asthma.
Franciscan
St. Francis Health now offers these patients new hope for better control of
their asthma.
It’s called Bronchial Thermoplasty, an outpatient procedure approved for the treatment of severe asthma in patients 18 years and
older whose condition is not well controlled with inhaled corticosteroids and
long-acting bronchodilators.
“Bronchial
Thermoplasty can be life-changing for patients, dramatically improving their
quality of life,” said Faisal Khan, MD, interventional pulmonologist at Franciscan St. Francis.
It can help reduce the frequency of asthma attacks,
emergency room visits and hospitalizations and days missed from work due to
symptoms of asthma.”
Asthma,
a chronic lung disease with no cure, commonly causes recurring periods of
wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and coughing. When triggered,
severe asthma causes the airways in the lungs to narrow, leading to the onset
of an asthma attack.
This new approach is performed using bronchoscopy, a
minimally invasive procedure in which a bronchoscope is inserted into the
airways through the mouth. The procedure uses a catheter-like device to deliver
thermal energy (heat) to the airway wall in order to reduce excessive airway
smooth muscle. This decreases the constriction of the airways and reduces the
frequency and severity of asthma attacks.
“This
procedure is unique because for the first time severe asthma can be treated in
a physical way, attacking the problem at its source – the lungs,” said Dr.
Khan. "Currently patients with severe, persistent asthma are
treated using high doses of medication and many still continue to suffer from
frequent asthma attacks."
Bronchial Thermoplasty is
performed in three outpatient visits, which are typically scheduled at least
three weeks apart. While not a cure for asthma, it works with
asthma maintenance medications to provide long-lasting asthma control and
improved asthma-related quality of life.
