Lung and respiratory specialist at EMC Alam Sutera Hospital, Hezza Bigitha, said asthma should not be left alone. The reason is, uncontrolled asthma can disrupt the patient's quality of life.
If asthma is not treated well, of course the quality of life will decrease. For example, a child has to go to school but at night there is an attack. I had to take an exam tomorrow, but I got attacked.
Asthma cannot be cured, although it can be controlled with proper treatment, so treatment must be comprehensive. Untreated asthma can trigger narrowing of the airways.
Asthma means there is a chronic inflammatory process in the airways. In the inflammatory process, what occurs is the thickening of the airway walls, then the production of excess secretions and causing narrowing of the airways.
These three things cause the blood exchange process in the airways to be disrupted, resulting in symptoms of shortness of breath.
In fact, the symptoms of asthma are almost the same, starting from wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and impaired activity. The difference is, in severe asthma the symptoms will appear more frequently.
For example, attacks of shortness of breath occur more than twice a week, then you often wake up at night because of shortness of breath, you have to use relievers more than twice a week, and your activities are very disrupted.
The symptoms mentioned are signs that asthma is not controlled. Asthma is said to be severe when, despite using high doses of medication, it does not produce good results.
Asthma therapy is divided into two, there is drug therapy called relievers. There is also controller drug therapy. So we give two depending on the severity of the asthma. If the child starts coughing, use it immediately. Whether it is in the form of an inhaler or nebulization, depends on which one the child can use.
Some asthma can subside on its own and some need to be relieved by medication. It's just that we can't predict which attacks will go away on their own, or which attacks can go away with medication. If a child relapses and happens to have no medication, he or she will have to be taken to the emergency room for fear that the attack will get worse.
The essence of asthma treatment is the trigger factor. So, patients usually know what can make them short of breath. For example, if exposed to dust, cold, stress, and heavy exercise. The essence of asthma treatment is to avoid these trigger factors.
Meanwhile, asthma medication usually depends on the degree of severity. Every doctor will look at the degree of asthma so they will know whether the patient only needs relievers or whether he needs regular control drugs.
If the patient is deemed to need to use controller medication or controller medication, the patient must adhere to using the medication to achieve good asthma control.
Article written by dr. Hezza Bigitha, Sp.P (Lung and Respiratory Specialist Doctor at EMC Alam Sutera Hospital).