If you have severe
emphysema and low levels of oxygen in your blood, your doctor may recommend oxygen therapy to help with your shortness of breath. This means you are not getting enough oxygen on your own. You may need extra oxygen all the time or some of the time. For some people with severe emphysema, using extra oxygen for more than 15 hours a day can help them:
- Do tasks or activities with less shortness of breath
- Protect the heart and other organs from damage
- Sleep more during the night and improve alertness during the day
- Live longer.
For some people with severe emphysema, surgery may be recommended for their emphysema treatment. Surgery is usually done for patients who have:
- Severe symptoms
- Not improved from medications
- A very hard time breathing most of the time.
The two types of surgeries considered in severe emphysema treatment are:
- Lung Reduction Surgery. Emphysema patients may find relief from their symptoms with this surgical procedure. It often eliminates the need for oxygen and significantly enhances breathing function. This technique, which is a minimally invasive procedure, requires two or three small incisions made in the chest and a tiny camera inserted through one of the incisions to view the lung. Through another incision, a special stapling device is inserted to cut portions of the lung so that the healthy lung tissue has more room to expand. Prospective patients need to undergo careful testing prior to consideration of this surgery.
- Lung Transplant. A lung transplant may be done for some patients with very severe emphysema. A transplant involves removing the lung of a person with emphysema and replacing it with a healthy lung from a donor.
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