Bronchial Thermoplasty, an experimental new treatment for asthma is showing great promise in a multicentre clinical trial.
“Bronchial thermoplasty involves the direct treatment of the lung airway with thermal energy,” says Dr Ronald Olivenstein, asthma clinic director and medical director and principal investigator of the AIR2 trial of the Montreal Chest Institute.
The procedure reduces the airway constriction in asthma sufferers. “No general anaesthesia is used in this treatment, no incisions are necessary, and no overnight stay is required. This is an outpatient procedure that takes only about an hour to complete,” says Olivenstein.
Although researchers are careful to point out that there is no expectation this new procedure will cure asthma, results so far have exceeded expectations in reducing the severity and frequency of asthma symptoms and in improving the quality of life of the patients treated in the initial trials.
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