The Alair Bronchial Thermoplasty System is indicted for the treatment of severe persistent asthma in patients 18 years and older whose asthma is not well controlled with inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonists. |
Air travels in and out of the lungs through tubes called airways and these airways have tiny muscles in their walls. People with asthma have larger muscles in their airways than other people and their airways close down when those muscles contract. Asthma may be severe because asthma drugs do not control the asthma symptoms. Doctors use Broncial Thermoplasty (BT) to treat severe asthma. BT is a procedure and not an asthma medicine and the doctor performs this procedure when the patients health is good enough to have the treatment. |
The Alair System is a tool doctors use to perform Bronchial Thermoplasty and it has two main parts, a small tube with four wires at the end and a machine that heats the wires.
|
The Alair System mildly heats the airway walls causing a reduction in some of the extra muscle present in the airway. This may allow the airways to stay open and help patients breathe better. Bronchial Thermoplasty is indicated for the treatment of severe persistent asthma in patients 18 years and older whose asthma is not well controlled with inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonists. A 2007 study using patients with severe asthma showed patients had fewer severe asthma attacks, visits to the emergency room, and asthma symptoms after Bronchial Thermoplasty treatment. More detailed results of the study and the Alair Bronchial Thermoplasty System are available from the staff at Southeast Houston Pulmonology. |
|
|
"The more serious the illness, the more important it is for you to fight back, mobilizing all your resources-spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical."
Norman Cousins |
|
|