New official guide for the treatment of the exacerbation of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Several improvements for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are proposed in the regulations published in the European Respiratory Journal. The authors are part of a multidisciplinary team that counts with Dr. Marc Miravitlles, researcher of the Pneumology group Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).

The article describes the comprehensive analysis of data carried out by the researchers. All publications available have been valued on the measures currently used to treat patients with COPD. Through this analysis a new treatment guide for exacerbations of COPD, critical illness episodes, has been produced. The European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) have collaborated.

According to Dr. Miravitlles "new recommendations include advice for primary care physicians, because they refer to ambulatory patients suffering from mild to moderate exacerbations." Most previous studies focused on treating severe exacerbations of COPD patients hospitalized. This new regulation however, proposes changes in the treatment of patients seen at the clinic, or patients who have been discharged recently.

One of the main recommendations in the new guidelines is that patients hospitalized for exacerbations of COPD do pulmonary rehabilitation three weeks after discharge, instead of doing so during hospitalization. It has been observed that this would reduce significantly the rate of readmission. It has also been seen that, in some patients, home treatment could be as effective with adequate support as a new admission, and patients attending the clinic for COPD exacerbations should be administered oral corticosteroids in short runs of no more than seven days.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The acronym COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which occurs because the bronchi are inflamed and the alveoli are destroyed, mainly due to tobacco, where the entry of oxygen in the blood takes place.

Exacerbations are episodes of instability that diminish the quality of life of the patient and increases the risk of mortality. COPD is one of the most frequent causes of medical care in Catalonia precisely for these exacerbations, which they often suffer during the course of the disease, creating a big health expenditure.