Treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

How Is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Treated?

Sadly there is currently no cure for COPD, but there are a range of treatments that can help to slow the progression of the disease and assist in controlling some of the symptoms.

Stop smoking

If you are a smoker and you suffer from COPD the most important thing you can do is to stop smoking. Each time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, pipe, cigar or even second-hand smoke from another smoker, you are inflicting damage upon your lungs that is likely to make your condition worse.

Inhalers and medication

An inhaler is a device that can deliver medication directly to your lungs while you breathe. There is a variety of different types available including:

Short-acting bronchodilators – these are medications that help make breathing easier in the short term. They should only be used when you are feeling breathless and only up to a maximum of 4 times per day.

Long-acting bronchodilators – these work in a similar way to the short-acting ones, but last for up to 12 hours at a time.

Steroid Inhalers – whereas the bronchodilators help to open up the airways, steroid inhalers can help reduce the inflammation within the lungs, making it easier for the sufferer to breathe. In some cases inhalers will contain a mixture of these drugs to open the airways and reduce inflammation at the same time.

If an inhaler is not appropriate, there are other forms of medication such as tablets containing a drug called Theophylline which can help to relax and open up the airways, although using this drug does come with a risk of side-effects such as headaches, nausea and insomnia.

If your cough is particularly chesty and producing lots of thick phlegm, then a mucolytic drug called Carbocisteine can help in making the phlegm thinner and easier to cough up.

In cases of a severe flare-up of symptoms, your doctor might prescribe you steroid tablets to try and reduce the inflammation, but these can only be used for a short time to avoid the risks of side-effects. Antibiotics might be prescribed if you have any signs of a chest infection.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation is the name given to a programme of education and exercise that can help to reduce the symptoms and make day to day life more bearable for sufferers. This might include physiotherapy and physical exercise regimes to build up your general health alongside advice about diet and emotional and psychological support.

Oxygen Therapy

Depending on the level and severity of your condition, you might need additional help in breathing; either occasionally or regularly, and this can be provided through oxygen therapy. Some people will only need this type of assistance after performing strenuous activity but in others it will be necessary on a more frequent basis. Ambulatory Oxygen Therapy is a portable way that oxygen can be provided to the sufferer while they move around.

Surgery

It is rare that surgery is performed as it is only really suitable for those for whom medication does not work, but if it is the only way that help can be provided then there are 3 main options:

• A Bullectomy removes a pocket of air from the lungs to assist in making breathing more comfortable
• Lung Volume Reduction Therapy removes damaged sections of the lung allowing the healthier parts to function more easily
• A Lung Transplant is an operation where a damaged lung is removed and replaced with a healthy lung from a donor – these operations are rare as the outcomes are not always as successful as one would hope.

Contact us today for free, no obligation advice regarding your COPD claim – either by calling us free on 0800 122 3130, or by requesting a free call back, whereby one of our team will contact you at a time of your choice, to discuss your situation.

We’re here to help – contact us today.