Seretide Accuhaler versus normal puffer inhaler

[Gilly100]

Hi Am not well at moment and doctor has changed my seretide 250 inhaler - 2 puffs twice a day - to seretide 500 accuhaler - 1 puff twice a day without saying why. Spoken to asthma uk nurse and she wanted to know why as, I think she said, the accuhaler is a powder dispersal and different from puffer. Has anyone changed from puffer to accuhaler and benifited from it? I do use the aerochamber. I tried fostair a while back which was no good but asthma uk nurse mentioned flutiform and duorespiromax . Any feedback on these. Wish we were able to see our consultants.

[Nimueh]

I wouldn’t want to try to speculate as to why your inhaler was changed. The Accuhaler is indeed a dry powder inhaler (DPI) rather than a spray metered dose inhaler (MDI). I always have DPI’s as I react badly to propellants in MDI’s, so for me there is a benefit in using the Accuhaler. (Although I’ve now switched to Relvar from Seretide) I don’t think they should have changed it without speaking to you first as the inhaler technique for the two devices is different. I’d recommend you ring your surgery and ask why it’s changed, it seems strange to change it if you aren’t having any issues.

[Gilly100 in reply to Nimueh]

I am having issues but would have liked to speak about the change. I have been on seretide for many years and when I had another exacerbation was changed to fostair as was told it got further into the lungs and was really excellent but that did nothing for me so I managed to get back on seretide. Never heard of Relvar, is it new? Thanks for replying.

[Nimueh in reply to Gilly100]

It’s been out a few years now, but when my consultant changed me to it he described it as an updated version of seretide. It is a dry powder and still has fluticasone in it (as furoate rather than proprionate), but the reliever in it is a newer one, vilanterol. The particles in it are meant to be smaller so more of it gets deposited deeper in the lungs, similar to the fostair. Relvar seems to have helped me a lot, but I heard it can be difficult to get put on it due to cost. Last asthma review at my GP surgery the nurse said it’s not normally prescribed in my area, the only I have it is because my hospital consultant initiated it.

[Gilly100 in reply to Nimueh]

Thanks for info - appreciate it.