Between 200,000 and 400,000 people suffer severe asthma in France. During asthma attacks, they suffer from a major respiratory problem due in part to a contraction of the muscles which surround the bronchi. Bronchi are partially closed, their caliber narrowed, and the air can no longer pass properly. In severe asthmatics, these muscles are larger causing more severe tightening of the bronchi.
“For some asthmatics, breathing represents a constant inconvenience. In some patients, acute attacks are frequent and are accompanied by a life threat” explains Dr Stà © phanie Fry, pulmonologist at the Calmette hospital of the CHRU in Lille.
What is bronchial thermoplasty?
The Lille hospital center has therefore decided to offer its patients with severe asthma and that current treatments fail to stabilize, a new treatment that treats the disease by heat. Called bronchial thermoplasty, this treatment involves heating the inside of the patient’s bronchi using a small electrode inserted under general anesthesia. Three sessions of 40 to 60 minutes, 3 weeks apart are necessary to achieve cauterization of the muscle mass that surrounds the bronchi and which tightens them.
An innovative treatment not yet supported
Bronchial thermoplasty does not cure the disease but it allows severe asthmatics to regain a quality of life: their respiratory function improves, the attacks become less frequent and they can be reduced. their treatment with corticosteroids… therefore reduce side effects.
“About thirty patients should be treated over the next three years” announces the CHRU which finances these thermoplasties using its innovation program budget. The technique is in fact not yet supported by Health Insurance and costs 12,000 to 15,000 euros per patient, we learn. in the Voice of the North.
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