Pollen, mold, even humidity can send asthma sufferers into a severe meltdown. But a relatively new outpatient procedure is offering hope for adults with extreme cases.

“There’s a new technology in the treatment of asthma that’s called bronchial thermoplasty. We use this technology on folks who have severe asthma and whose symptoms have not been controlled with usual medical therapy,” says Dr. Sagar Naik, who is a pulmonologist with Lee Memorial Health System.

Adults with uncontrolled asthma often make repeat trips to the hospital and over time the chronic condition becomes permanent and damaging.

“What happens in a process we like to call airways remodeling. Airways remodeling means the tubes that takes air to their lungs are inflamed. With years and years of inflammation that tube gets scarred and gest thickened and permanently remains a constricted phase,” says Dr. Naik.

The first nondrug therapy FDA approved to treat severe, chronic asthma; bronchial thermoplasty directly targets the inflamed airways. And by applying heat, gets them to open up.

“What we do in bronchial thermoplasty is take a thin, flexible, fiber optic tube with a camera at it’s tip, from the nose down into the lungs. We take it to each individual breathing tube and at a very, very, low frequency we emit heat energy that allows that muscle around the breathing tubes to shrink,” says Dr. Naik.

This technology is available through Lee Memorial Health System. Nationally, data shows the effects have staying power: that five years postprocedure there was 78% reduction of asthmarelated ER visits.

“Getting back from a point where you’re always scared when the next asthma attack is going to be, to being well controlled is a huge improvement,” says Naik.

Making this hot treatment a lifechanging procedure for people struggling to breath.

View More Health Matters video segments at leememorial.org/healthmatters/

Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

Visit leememorial.org