The Gospel of Treatment for Patients with Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common respiratory chronic airway disease, mainly characterized by cough, sputum and dyspnea after activity, mostly related to smoking and long-term dust exposure. Currently, COPD is the 4th leading cause of death in the world, with as many as 600 million patients suffering from the disease every year. According to a population survey in some areas of China, the prevalence of COPD among people over 40 years old is 8.2%. Traditional medical treatment for COPD is based on smoking cessation and inhaled medications, and patients with severe COPD need inhaled bronchodilators and glucocorticoids, which can alleviate the symptoms of dyspnea. However, for some patients with severe emphysema, after internal medicine treatment, patients still have dyspnea, and even cannot take care of themselves and cannot leave home, which seriously affects the quality of life. Since the 1990s, surgical lung reduction surgery has been carried out to reduce the lung volume of the emphysematous part of the lung by removing the lung lobes of severe emphysema, improve the elasticity of the residual lung tissues, and improve lung function. However, due to the poor lung function of patients, the 90-day postoperative surgery-related mortality rate is 3%-19%, and the incidence of serious complications is 59%, coupled with the traumatic nature of the surgery, which is difficult for most patients to accept. At present, many hospitals in China have developed a new technology of bronchoscopic interventional therapy – internal lung decongestion therapy for severe emphysema. That is, through the bronchoscope in the bronchial tube into the one-way valve, completely blocked emphysema severe lung lobe, in addition to no function of emphysema lung lobe volume, adjacent to the pressure of normal lung tissue reopening, improve the ventilation function. Compared with surgical lung reduction, this minimally invasive technique has been used to treat approximately 5,000 patients abroad because it has fewer complications, faster postoperative recovery, and is reversible, allowing the valve to be removed in the event of an adverse reaction. 2013 edition of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has already listed the unidirectional valve technique as a clinically proven treatment option. The 2013 edition of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has included the bronchial unidirectional flap technique as a clinically proven treatment that improves lung function, exercise capacity, and quality of life in patients with inhomogeneous emphysema. Several published clinical studies have found that endobronchial unidirectional flaps are most effective in patients with severe emphysema who have non-homogeneous emphysema, intact interlobar fissures and no collateral ventilation. The technique is short, can be performed under local or general anesthesia, and the flap can be easily removed if complications arise. Preoperative screening and postoperative evaluation require the use of multislice CT for interlobar fissure integrity evaluation and quantitative CT for assessment of relative emphysema volume within the lung lobes. The clinical trial “Endobronchial unidirectional flap for severe emphysema”, organized by Olympus and led by academician Zhong Nanshan of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, has been conducted in 10 centers nationwide, including the Department of Respiratory Medicine of the First Hospital of Peking University. The study is a randomized, controlled study. Patients between the ages of 40-75 years with a previous diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or severe emphysema, who still have significant dyspnea that interferes with daily life after medication, will have the opportunity to enter the study and receive a bronchovascular valve. Bronchial flap therapy.