Breath of life for sick lungs

Curl up and die, have lung reduction surgery, or have a lung transplant. In the past, these were the only options for emphysema sufferers. But not any more.

Now sufferers can undergo a ground-breaking non-invasive procedure, known as Lung Volume Reduction Coil. This procedure was recently performed for the first time in Africa.

Dr Johan Theron, a pulmonologist at Mediclinic Panorama in Cape Town, said: "It is a non-invasive procedure which sees 10 small coils inserted into the lung through a throat tube to bring back [the lungs'] elasticity."

He has performed the procedure three times with Professor Coenie Koegelenberg of the University of Stellenbosch, the first doctors to do so in Africa.

Said Koegelenberg: "The coils come in three different sizes. It is during the actual procedure that we see which size should go where in the lung. It is takes up to 60 minutes in theatre, and patients can go home the next day."

Lung reduction surgery entails hospitalisation between five and 10 days, and is invasive surgery, whereby wedges of damaged lung tissue are removed to allow the remaining tissue to function better.

Koegelenberg said: "While you are under general anaesthetic, you have a tube in your lung anyway to breathe, so now we put the camera in that tube too and we can see where we are."

The coils are sent through a tube in a straightened form but spring into the desired shape when they are released.

Theron cautioned: "Not all emphysema sufferers qualify for this procedure."

He added that the procedure was not a first resort, and was only implemented in cases of advanced emphysema .

Robbie Faux, a patient who had the procedure, said he had initially tried to arrange an operation in Germany before Theron contacted him.

"My other options were to curl up and die, have lung reduction surgery, or a transplant. Both those options mean opening up the chest. It is a whole other ball game because it is major surgery," he says.

The day after the procedure, he said he went home feeling excellent.

The procedure is very expensive (the 20 coils cost R400000) and, Koegelenberg said, the high cost meant the public health sector would not carry it out.