life expectancy of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

lainey368 · Newbie Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 1

Hello! My father has been diagnosed a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was a heavy smoker. He used to cough very often and we knew this was caused by smoking. Few months ago he started to feel breath shortness and we could hear the wheezing sound. My mother and I forced him to see his doctor and he did a spirometric measurement and X-ray. His doctor told him to quit smoking and prescribed some medicines. What is the life expectancy of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

adey1022 · Newbie Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 1

Hello! Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is actually a group of diseases which includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema and a range of other lung disorders. They all limit the airflow in the airway that is not fully reversible. You didn’t say which disease was diagnosed in your father. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment is essential for good prognosis. Your father will certainly have improvement in lung function when the treatment starts but you have to know that signs and symptoms will worsen as the disease progresses. The survival is around 10 years if two-thirds of expected lung function was lost by diagnosis.

life expectancy of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

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