World specialists in Emphysema attend symposium at NNUH
Healthcare professionals from the UK and abroad have attended an event at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) to discuss advances in managing emphysema, a respiratory condition which mainly affects smokers.
Emphysema is a chronic lung disease that damages the air sacs and other lung tissue, making it difficult to breathe. It’s a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and mainly affects middle-aged or older adults who smoke. There’s no cure for emphysema, but treatments can help manage symptoms, improve quality of life and slow the progression of the disease.
In the last year NNUH has become one of the leading centres in the interventional treatment of emphysema and for endobronchial valve insertion more specifically, a non-surgical volume lung reduction procedure for patients with emphysema. Surgical lung volume reduction interventions are also performed via robotic surgery allowing the team to offer such interventions to higher risk emphysema patients.
NNUH is the regional centre and takes referrals from hospitals across Norfolk and Suffolk. Approximately 30 lung volume reduction interventions are performed at NNUH every year.
The service is mainly a collaboration between the respiratory and thoracic surgical teams led by Consultant Respiratory Physicians Dr Malcolm Marquette and Dr Sadiyah Hand and Consultant Thoracic Surgeon Mr Vasileios Kouritas. The service is formed around an emphysema multidisciplinary team meeting which also includes Intensive Care Consultant Dr Dhrampal, the Chest Radiologist Dr Spohr and the hyperinflation clinic nurses Ms Browne, Ms Braithwaite and Ms Posey. The whole service is coordinated by Ms Caroline Vlotman. The team discusses which option would be best for each patient after reviewing imaging and tests carried out in the clinic.
The team organised an emphysema symposium last month with guest speakers sharing their knowledge, discussing current UK and international emphysema data and future surgical and non-surgical treatment options. Guest speakers included Prof Ceulemans from Leuven in Belgium who specialises in transplant surgery and lung volume reduction surgery, and highly respected Consultant Thoracic Surgeon Mr David Waller, who has just retired from Barts Health NHS Trust. Prof Neil Greening, Respiratory Physician from Leicester also attended and talked about the endobronchial valves. It was the first time such an event has been held in the East of England.
Healthcare professionals including surgeons, respiratory physicians, trainees, nurses, physiotherapists and GPs as well as patients from across Norfolk and Suffolk attended the event.
Thoracic Surgeon, Vasileios Kouritas, said: “It was a massive achievement for these big names to be in our hospital discussing the importance of managing this condition. We are very proud of our emphysema service which is run by a multi-disciplinary team.”
Lung health checks are currently being offered in the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston areas. These areas have been selected as they have higher incidences and later diagnoses of lung cancer, making them a priority area for early testing. Plans are currently being developed to expand the programme gradually to the rest of Norfolk and Waveney.
Vasileios Kouritas added: “Since the lung checks have been launched in Great Yarmouth and Gorleston we’ve had 300 referrals of patients with moderate emphysema and we’re expecting to see more patients come through our service after they’ve maximised medical intervention.”
Dr Sundari Ampi, Joint Chief of Medicine Division, said: “Becoming the leading centre for valve insertion has been four years in the making and is down to the incredible work of Vas, Sadiyah, Malcolm, Paula Browne and the rest of the emphysema team. I’d like to thank them for ensuring we can deliver this service and for helping to put together such a brilliant event. We’re now looking to become a regional centre of excellence in this field.”