Pulmonary Fibrosis Treatment

While there are many diseases that have standard treatments that will cure the disease, pulmonary fibrosis is different. Currently pulmonary fibrosis is incurable and once you are diagnosed with it you will have it for the rest of your life. While there is no treatment for pulmonary fibrosis there are some procedures that can be done to help manage symptoms. No treatment for pulmonary fibrosis is standard though so any treatment that one will be given will be made specialized for that specific patient based on their symptoms and medical history.

            There are two main types of treatments for pulmonary fibrosis, which consist of pharmacological and non-pharmacological. Within non-pharmacological measures there are a lot of strategies that one can do to manage symptoms and prevent future complications. The most straightforward treatments in this category are to stay away from smoking of any kind, to get vaccinated so you don’t catch any bugs that can harm your lungs, and to maintain a healthy weight. You can also monitor your oxygen saturation at home with pulse oximetry to make sure your lungs are functioning properly. It is important to always be above 90%. Another thing that you can do is something called pulmonary rehabilitation. With pulmonary rehab you have a structured exercise program with the goal of restoring one’s respiratory function without causing extreme breathlessness. This has become a very important part of many people’s treatment with lung diseases.

            Along with the many helpful non-pharmacological treatments there are also many pharmacological treatments that can do a lot to help people with pulmonary fibrosis. Corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, and mycophenolate mofetil are common medications used for pulmonary fibrosis which help to suppress the immune system and inflammation. Both of these are some of the main causes of pulmonary fibrosis so suppressing them really helps to slow down the scarring of the tissue.  Nintedinib and pirfenidone are two medications that are also helpful and are both classified as anti-fibrotic drugs. This means that they help to lessen the scarring in the lungs. The last type of medication is supplemental oxygen. This just helps to get more oxygen into your blood so that your body works better. The main drug that causes side effects is prednisone and the most common of these are aggression, agitation, dizziness, mood changes, headache, and irritability. There are many drugs that are prescribed for pulmonary fibrosis but the drugs chosen normally depend a lot on how your pulmonary fibrosis is progressing.

            If none of these therapies are working the only option left is to do a lung transplant. These are extremely risky though and can only be done on patients that are in very good health. Life after the transplant can also be pretty hard because you have to stay on life long antirejection drugs and sometimes the transplant doesn't work out. The treatment for pulmonary fibrosis is still evolving and changes every day and hopefully a better treatment will be found soon.

References

"Treatment Options." Treatment Options. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/life-with-pf/pulmonary-fibrosis-treatment-options>.

"Pulmonary Fibrosis Symptoms, Prognosis, Treatments, and More." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/lung/pulmonary-fibrosis?page=2>.