Asthma treatment: PGIMER joins select list of institutions

CHANDIGARH: The department of Pulmonary Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh recently performed bronchial thermoplasty (BT), an advanced procedure for severe asthma. With this, the PGIMER has joined the list of selected institutions which offer this procedure in India.

Asthma is an allergic disorder in which the airways of the lungs are narrowed due to inflammation resulting in breathing difficulty.

Bronchial thermoplasty(BT) is a minimally-invasive treatment option for patients having symptoms due to severe asthma despite receiving maximal doses of appropriate medications. It is an out-patient procedure which is performed under sedation or general anesthesia.

During the procedure, a flexible tube (bronchoscope) is introduced into the patient’s lungs. A special wire is then used to partly burn the smooth muscle of the air passages at multiple locations, thereby reducing the muscle tissue which causes narrowing of the airways. Patients can usually be discharged 4-6 hours after the procedure.

The risks associated with this procedure are generally minimal. Some patients may have a temporary worsening of their asthma after the procedure. Doctors, however, caution that BT will not cure asthma, and patients have to continue taking their current medications for asthma even after BT, albeit at a lower and safer dose.