If you’ve been diagnosed with severe COPD/Emphysema, it’s important you understand the facts and how to manage your chronic lung condition. In the past few years there have been major advances in severe COPD/Emphysema treatment. Medication and surgery are no longer your only options.
Here’s What You Need to Know
Breathing Troubles Are Caused by Excess Air
With severe COPD/Emphysema you may feel tightness in your chest and feel like you’re unable to breathe in enough air to get relief. However, believe it or not, what is actually happening is that the damaged parts of your lungs have become too full of air, and the air has become trapped in your lungs. The damaged parts of your lungs can no longer release the trapped air naturally, so there is limited space for new air to enter and this causes your shortness of breath. The trapped air can also make your lungs expand beyond what is normal and put pressure on your diaphragm. This is called hyperinflation and can make breathing even more difficult and add to the discomfort you feel.
Treatment Options Used to be Limited
For a long time, severe COPD/Emphysema treatment has been limited to medication, oxygen therapy, pulmonary rehab, or major surgery. As the disease progresses, some medications that once worked well may no longer be enough and the only other option for relief was major surgery. Now, with Zephyr Valves there is a new minimally invasive treatment option that is not a medicine or a surgery.
How a Small Valve May be Able to Give You Relief
The Zephyr Valve Treatment was approved by the FDA, and is clinically proven to help people with severe COPD/Emphysema breathe easier, do more, and enjoy a better quality of life.1 These small valves are placed by bronchoscopy inside your airways to block off the diseased part of your lung where air is getting trapped. On average, four tiny valves* are placed into the most diseased part of your lung without any cutting or incisions.1 Typically, the Zephyr Valve procedure is completed in under an hour and patients report being able to get back to doing daily tasks like cooking, showering, and walking with less breathlessness.
25,000 patients have already made this choice toward breaking free from their severe COPD/Emphysema.
Take the next step.
Find a Zephyr Valve Treating Doctor Near You
Find Out if You May Be a Candidate
*The number of valves implanted is based on individual lung anatomy and physician discretion.
