Living With Emphysema

By Sam Dewey, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center

In the United States alone, over three million Americans suffer from emphysema, a chronic disease that causes irreversible lung tissue damage and dramatically decreases quality of life. Living with emphysema can be challenging — it’s a progressive disease with no known cure. Along with other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), it ranks third in leading causes of death in the U.S. Most doctors agree that understanding emphysema and learning how to live with it are two of the most important steps to treat the disease successfully.

How Emphysema Works
Emphysema destroys the air cells in the lung tissue that are responsible for absorbing oxygen and letting out air. Normally, these cells (called alveoli) are clustered together in grape-like bunches that provide a large amount of surface area for gas exchange. Once the alveoli collapse, less of this surface area is available. As a result, smaller amounts of oxygen can be absorbed by the body. Emphysema also destroys the elastic fibers that hold open the small airways leading to the alveoli. While healthy lungs are highly elastic, emphysema reduces elasticity, trapping air within the lungs and making it harder to exhale.

Signs and Symptoms
Emphysema is typically a result of prolonged cigarette smoking, but it can also be caused by long-term exposure to dust or other chemical agents. Common symptoms of emphysema include:

• Shortness of breath, even when resting
• Feelings of suffocation
• Continuous fatigue
• Chronic coughing and wheezing
• Frequent lung infections

   

  Unfortunately, most people are not aware they have emphysema until it has significantly affected their everyday lives. Early detection is important to successfully manage the disease.

  Living with Emphysema
  Living with emphysema requires an immediate change in lifestyle in order to postpone its progression and alleviate symptoms. Even before diagnosis, lifelong smokers are encouraged to quit smoking immediately. Patients diagnosed with severe emphysema are also at a higher risk for respiratory infections, inflammation, and other respiratory conditions.

  As symptoms continue to worsen, patients often become increasingly immobile. Reduced activity levels tend to worsen health problems, prompting and often hastening an overall decline in the patient’s health. Staying active, informed, and involved in treatment can help patients stay on top of the disease.

  “Exercise is an excellent way to improve symptoms and increase ability to do more activities,” says Dr. William Tillis, pulmonologist of the Illinois Lung & Critical Care Institute. “Pulmonary rehab is another great way to get up and going. It’s all about preventing episodes of worsening symptoms. That is why it is so important to quit smoking, get yearly flu shots, and see a doctor as soon as you feel ill.”

  An Eye on the Future
  While there is no cure for emphysema, traditional treatments such as drug therapy, supplemental oxygen, and pulmonary rehab can help relieve symptoms. However, emphysema will eventually exhaust these treatment methods. Once this happens, there are few options available to provide relief.

  Luckily, research is being done to improve outcomes for patients living with emphysema. Even in Peoria, some emphysema patients can get involved in a clinical trial of the RePneu® Lung Volume Reduction Coil.

  “While meds and inhalers have helped with air trapping,” says
  Dr. Tillis, one of the leaders involved in the study, “we are now looking at other ways to affect air trapping through innovative lung volume reduction.”

  According to Dr. Tillis, this cutting-edge procedure may improve exercise capacity, lung function, and quality of life.

  If you are currently living with emphysema and no longer smoke,
  Illinois Lung & Critical Care Institute is now enrolling patients in a clinical trial of the RePneu® Lung Volume Reduction Coil. To learn more about the study or to see if you qualify to participate, please call Illinois Lung & Critical Care Institute at 309-669-1165 or visit us online at illinoislung.org.

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