{"id":7446,"date":"2019-10-13T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.osfhealthcare.org\/blog\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2020-06-05T08:40:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T13:40:23","slug":"new-lease-on-life-for-copd-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osf-blog.live.imagescape.com\/blog\/new-lease-on-life-for-copd-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"A new lease on life for COPD patient"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HarryHarry Alexander quit smoking in 1996, but his breathing didn\u2019t improve. That can happen when you start smoking in your teens and maintain a two-packs-a-day habit for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

The damage all that smoke did to Harry\u2019s lungs was severe. He didn\u2019t get lung cancer, but in 2015, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the spring of 2019, Harry couldn\u2019t push a lawn mower across his yard even once. He couldn\u2019t take a walk around the neighborhood with his 2-year-old grandson. Even eating wore him out, as he had to stop to catch his breath after chewing a single forkful of food.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Patrick Whitten, MD<\/a>, an interventional pulmonologist<\/a> at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center<\/a> in Peoria, Illinois, offered Harry a treatment option called bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR). Three days after the inpatient procedure, Dr. Whitten sent Harry home with no restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re fine. Do anything you want,\u201d Dr. Whitten told him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I went home and cut the grass,\u201d Harry said.<\/p>\n

OSF Saint Francis provides unique procedure<\/h2>\n

Illinois is the only state in the upper Midwest with health care facilities offering bronchoscopic lung volume reduction<\/a>. OSF Saint Francis is the only hospital in Illinois outside of Chicago performing the procedure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a life-changer for people with COPD<\/a>, which is the No. 3 cause of deaths in U.S. adults.<\/p>\n

When you have COPD, your airways and the air sacs in your lungs become inflamed, clogged with mucus or collapse. Once damaged, the air sacs (called alveoli) cannot be repaired and stop functioning. Instead of oxygen being pumped into your blood and being exchanged for carbon dioxide, the oxygen becomes trapped in the diseased section of your lung. The resulting hyperinflation reduces your capacity to breathe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are gasping for air,\u201d Dr. Whitten said.<\/p>\n

Medications, delivered through inhalers<\/a>, and oxygen treatments can help. But as the condition worsens, more dramatic steps may be required.<\/p>\n

For decades, lung volume reduction involved major surgery. A thoracic surgeon would cut open the patient\u2019s chest and remove damaged sections of lung. The surgery requires a lengthy hospital stay, carries the risk of infection and leaves patients in considerable discomfort while they recover.<\/p>\n

For more than 20 years, Dr. Whitten and one of his partners, William Tillis, MD, have been involved in national research to figure out how to simulate the surgery by using a tube called a bronchoscope. The tube goes through the mouth into the airways, and tiny, one-way valves are placed in the damaged lung. The valves push out mucus and gases and stop fresh oxygen from reentering and getting trapped.<\/p>\n

The procedure takes about 40 minutes. The patient must stay in the hospital for three days, to monitor them in case the lung collapses. A collapsed lung will lengthen the hospital stay, but it won\u2019t affect the prognosis for a full recovery and the improved breathing capacity, Dr. Whitten said.<\/p>\n

Game-changer for pulmonologists<\/h2>\n

To be considered for bronchoscopic lung volume reduction, a patient first must:<\/p>\n