New treatment for COPD

[Coughingalltheway]

I've just come across this article as a new way of treating COPD. An hour long operation, seems like a miricle to me!

rbht.nhs.uk/first-uk-patien...

[sassy59]

That sounds amazing and a huge step forward. Thank you for posting. Xx

[Patk1]

Sounds amazing x

[Welshcatlady]

Sounds really good, thank you for sharing. xx

[leo60]

Thank you so much for posting this! My (St. Thomas' hospital) specialist is going to refer me to the Brompton for LVR, maybe this could be an alternative? I will look into it!

Thanks again, Laurie xx

[Coughingalltheway in reply to leo60]

Good luck! xx

[leo60 in reply to Coughingalltheway]

Thank you 😘 xx

[Mopsey1897]

I saw this a few months ago and could be good news for sufferers. They are doing lots of different trials but I don’t know how old the info link is.

[Coughingalltheway in reply to Mopsey1897]

They are doing it privately at Guys Hospital but I can't find any information on whether the NHS are carrying on with the trials.

guysandstthomasspecialistca...

[peege]

Wondering if it could help other lung diseases or just copd 🤔. Royal Brompton is a highly regarded Respiratory hospital in London (in case you weren't aware). Thanks for posting 👍

[bikergrove]

Sounds wonderful, thanks for sharing.

[Linsforbes]

I think this is an old post as I found it a few years ago. Haven’t heard anything since.

[Thepainterswife]

Wow ! Good news indeed , hopefully a treatment will be available to all Copd sufferers in the near future

[Bingo88 in reply to Thepainterswife]

Good morning. Hope your keeping as well as possible. Brian

[Thepainterswife in reply to Bingo88]

I am Brian , so far so good thanks 😃 I’m just off to the garden centre. How are you ? xx

[Bingo88 in reply to Thepainterswife]

Yes I am doing ok Thanks. Just plodding along. Like us all. Enjoy your day and weekend. Brian

[Thepainterswife in reply to Bingo88]

You too Brian , I believe we re going to get some sun 😃 I’ve come home with plenty plants so I’ll be busy ( slowly 😂) and my sons coming over to dig out a new wildlife pond ( the last one sprung a leak ) xx

[Bingo88 in reply to Thepainterswife]

So pleased to hear that you are keeping enjoying life and your Garden. I know how difficult it is to carry on when you loose a loved one. My friend passed away 18 months ago and his wife is still finding it so hard to live life again. I am so glad she has her daughter, who still lives at home to talk to and support her and she is moving forward slowly. Take care of yourself. Brian

[garshe]

Thank you for sharing. I have written to them enquiring about treatments or trials for Severe COPD I will let you all know IF I get a reply. 🤞🙏xx.Sheila

[Dumba in reply to garshe]

Trying too

[garshe in reply to Dumba]

Good luck xx.Sheila 👍

[Dumba in reply to garshe]

This was 2016

[garshe in reply to Dumba]

OK thanks xx.Sheila

[Superfly1975]

I contacted the Royal Brompton about this procedure a few months back, I was told that currently it is only available privately at a cost of around £10,000.

[Coughingalltheway in reply to Superfly1975]

I know that Guys Hospital are doing it privately, it would be interesting to know why the NHS isn't. I'll try to go through the various NICE reports to see if I can find anything.

I'm annoyed that it's still at the top of the search page on Google if it's old news!

[Superfly1975 in reply to Coughingalltheway]

I think it was March time that I first saw it, Brought it to the attention of my GP practice and the Respiratory Nurse who had no knowledge of the procedure.

[garibaldon]

I read a few years ago it was a treatment only for chronic asthma suffers and was developed in the USA.

[Lee_Scoresby]

Thanks for this encouraging news link. Isn’t it nice for us to have a little ray of positive news amongst all our problems?

[Dumba]

Amazing news, hope for many thanks. Hope for me !

[Coughingalltheway]

I am so sorry guys, I am new to all this and I naively thought that this was current. Several comments below have said that it's old news so I've looked further and found out that NICE doesn't recommend the procedure yet as there have not been enough trials done. See below:

Again, sorry to get people's hopes up (including mine!)

1 Recommendations

1.1 Evidence on the safety and efficacy of endobronchial nerve ablation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is inadequate in quantity. Therefore, this procedure should only be used in the context of research. Find out what only in research means on the NICE interventional procedures guidance page.

1.2 Further research should be randomised controlled trials comparing the procedure with sham treatment. It should report details of patient selection, and short and long-term functional outcomes including lung functional outcomes, quality of life and patient-reported outcomes, incidence of exacerbations and hospital admissions, and all adverse events.

[jackdup in reply to Coughingalltheway]

No need to apologize as the article was not dated. It is always nice to read about new procedures that are being trialed. This one certainly looked to be promising and maybe will be at some point. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a lot of updates over the years. It would be nice to know the success rate and why it isn’t widely available.

[Swizzy]

There are always things which raise our hopes. Unfortunately they are not always what they seem or are re runs of procedures tried years ago. When I was teenager in the 60s there were always prayers said in church for a young lady who was bedridden and on a ventilator. She later died. I discovered years later that she had undergone a procedure to her vegus nerve for her asthma and this is how she ended up. My sister had an operation to shred the vegus nerve in her gastro system because of really awful ibs. They have now discontinued it on NHS deeming it not to be safe.Sorry guys - oh how we all wish, whatever our condition but 73 years of bronch have left me very sceptical.

[Coughingalltheway in reply to Swizzy]

Wise words, thank you Swizzy. I guess that we'd all jump at the chance of getting better but as you say, lots of false hopes.. x

[Eastend555 in reply to Swizzy]

Yes you talk a lot of sense also no way will nhs fund it they are short of money and if Mr Starmer is opening the flood gates what chance have we got .

But to those with £10.000 to spare i hope it works i really do

[garibaldon in reply to Swizzy]

Regrettably I have to agree. It makes it sound that destroying the Vegus nerve is a form of cure unfortunately this procedure will not restore the damage in the lung. I read that it can help chronic asthma suffers. Not damaged tissue. Sorry folks.

[katieoxo60]

Sounds marvellous especially for people with bad COPD . The treatment of the future hopefully . Thanks for link.x

[jackdup]

It sounds great but this is from 8 years ago so is surprising there doesn’t seem to be any updates since then. One would think if it was very successful it would be a much more common practice and more people would know about it and respiratory doctors would be referring many more patients for the procedure.

The Guys article states.

“Over the last nine years, Nuvaira®’s trials have shown very promising results. “We’ve seen significant improvements, particularly in exacerbation frequency,” says Professor Shah, “which translates to reduced admissions to hospital and a better quality of life.”

[Coughingalltheway in reply to jackdup]

Yes, I commented again above that NICE have knocked it back until more studies are done. If you've got £10K however...

[jackdup in reply to Coughingalltheway]

I believe this is the company that has developed the procedure. I plan on emailing them later to see what the status is and why it is not more readily available.

nuvaira.com/blog/200th-trea...

[Coughingalltheway in reply to jackdup]

Good luck with that and let us know if they reply to you?

[jackdup in reply to Coughingalltheway]

Will do

[Kezz63]

Thank you for sharing this information.

[Mopsey1897]

AstraZenica are doing trials with a drug called Tezepelumab for people with COPD to see if it stops exacerbations and help stop breathing problems. Probably take a few years but will help others in the future.

[Bubba39]

That sounds amazing,thanks for sharing.x

[Davegt]

Thanks for that link. Very useful. 👍

[Kristicats]

Yes the trials for this is happening down south. However to join the trial you have to sign up for ANY trials that are offered that are taking place re COPD and be prepared to travel. Just hope this particular one doesn’t take years as it sounds promising up to yet.

[Coughingalltheway in reply to Kristicats]

That's good to know, thank you.