GUWAHATI: Guwahati based 40-year-old Gautom Borah has been juggling between a hospital’s emergency room, office and use of inhalers to deal with his bouts of asthma attack before he heard about Bronchial Thermoplasty. Over the last 10 years, the severity of his illness has increased as he struggles to climb stairs gasping for his breath. It gets severe in the city where he constantly has to deal with increasing pollution due to factors like vehicular emissions & particulate matter, sedentary lifestyle and thousands smoking in and around the city. Visiting an emergency room for life may not be a good idea for patients like him with severe asthma whose symptoms are not being controlled by available medications and inhalers.
To improve quality of life of patients with severe asthma which includes about 5% of asthmatic patients, an advanced solution and a life changing technology to all the above problems is ‘Bronchial Thermoplasty’ (BT). It is a technological innovation developed for asthma patients above 18 years of age. Having performed highest number of successful Bronchial Thermoplasty in India at Yashoda Hospital, this technique not only reduces emergency hospital visits of patients, but also improves their quality of life by reducing recurrent asthma attacks, increasing their participation in social activities, which generally asthma patients refrain to do in fear of asthma attacks.
Asthma patients have narrower airways because of increase in the muscle mass and mucus production, which makes it difficult to breathe. It also triggers coughing and wheezing. As the airways continue to become narrower, the chance of severe asthma attacks are increased. Bronchial Thermoplasty is one such technology being used in Yashoda Hospital to reduce this muscle mass, under which controlled heat energy is applied to patient’s airways with the help of bronchoscope. The heat energy reduces the smooth muscle around the airways and help in broadening the airways. The therapy includes three sessions in three weekly intervals for a patient.
