By now you should know that COPD is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world. Treatment of this disease includes the use of medications to help with symptoms and flair ups. In addition, there are somem nonpharmacologic treatment options for selected patients.
One of the recently advanced nonpharmacologic therapies is something call bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BLVR) using small valves placed in the airways to portions of the lung to cause them to collapse and eliminate large areas of emphysema. Our patients often ask about this treatment and are often distressed to find that there are fairly strict medical criteria which must be met before embarking on this procedure.
Along with questions about how successful this treatment can be, are questions about the risks. I am writing this article to give you some of those answers.
Current data shows that approximately 48% of patients undergoing BLVR have a complication. The most common complication is pneumothorax (air in the chest with a collapsed lung) which occurs in 26% of the cases, acute respiratory failure occurs about 20% of the time with a COPD exacerbation note 8.8% of the time. Pneumonia at 7.3% and hemoptysis (bleeding and coughing blood) round out the most common complications at 5.3%. These numbers are taken from a recent study specifically looking at these complication rates.
These numbers should not dissuade you from considering BLVR but along with the specific criteria for the procedure, you need to know the potential complications.
