Having severe asthma really limits everyday activities, which can be really frustrating. Many people suffering from severe asthma have to deal with persistent shortness of breath and even the inability to speak in full sentences. Many times regular asthma medications are not enough and they have to manage the severe symptoms when they can otherwise they end up in the emergency room. The good news is that bronchial thermoplasty, a non-drug treatment costing more than $20,000 is now being covered by most insurance providers.
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The FDA approved bronchial thermoplasty in 2005, but due to the high cost, most patients are not able to use this treatment. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition of the airways, where you get symptoms of breathlessness and wheezing. People who get severe asthma attacks have to worry about:
- Breathlessness even when lying down
- Persistent shortness of breath
- Bluish lips
- Agitation or confusion
- Inability to concentrate
- Hunched shoulder and muscles
It’s very frustrating and uncomfortable when the use of an inhaler is just not enough. Bronchial therapy is a treatment that improves asthma-related quality of life for people with severe asthma by reducing asthma attacks. Fewer asthma attacks means that people use less oral steroid treatments, which can have side-effects.
The Alair® Bronchial Thermoplasty System is a minimally invasive bronchoscopic procedure performed in three outpatient procedure visits. Each procedure treats a different part of the lungs. The Alair device delivers mild heat to the smooth muscle of the airways in the lungs, reducing the amount of excessive smooth muscle. There is 
Bronchial thermoplasty is clinically proven to reduce asthma attacks for at least 5 years. About 80% of patients that were treated with this reported a significant improvement in their asthma-related quality of life. They experienced a 32% decrease in severe asthma attacks, which meant fewer emergency room visits and fewer disruptions from the lives such as missing days from work or school due to their asthma.
Many insurers were reluctant to cover this treatment, saying that it’s still too new and experimental and it’s taken 5 years to prove the sustained benefits for them to cover it. It’s definitely great news for those 25 million people in the U.S. that suffer from asthma. Especially when asthma counts for almost 2 million emergency room visits each year, which is why insurers now see the cost benefit to this procedure.
NEXT: Taking Action Against Asthma