ENGLAND'S National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued new guidelines for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
The guidelines recommend severe patients be evaluated for bronchoscopic lung volume reduction including the Zephyr Endobronchial Valve System.
Criteria for evaluation have been broadened and a new group of people for whom lung volume reduction surgery had been unsuitable may now be evaluated for treatment with Zephyr Valves, a less invasive treatment option.
In addition, emphysema patients who have completed pulmonary rehabilitation, stopped smoking, have lung function of less than 50% of predicted, can walk at least 140 meters in 6 minutes (a standard exercise test), and suffer from breathlessness should be referred for evaluation for lung volume reduction procedures.
See details at nice.org.uk.
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