Question
When do you need more than a rescue bronchodilator?
Answer
Rules of 2TM
When do you need more than a rescue bronchodilator? You would want to ask your patient, do you take your quick-relief inhaler more than two times per week? Do you awaken at night with asthma symptoms or do you have a child that awakens at night with asthma symptoms more than two times per month? Do you refill your quick-relief inhaler more than two times per year? Think about that. Meter dose inhalers have 200 – 300 doses in them. If an individual is refilling that prescription more than two times per year, think of how often they are taking it.
The exception to that is for exercise-induced asthma. My daughter has exercise-induced asthma. She takes her inhaler nearly every day because she climbs mountains, mountain bikes, swims, and runs, and such. In that case, because it is the airways and the smooth muscle surrounding the airways that is the problem in exercise-induced bronchospasm, the increased use of a SABA is fine for that individual.
However, if the answer is yes to any of these questions and it is not exercise-induced asthma, a long-term anti-inflammatory medication may be needed.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Current Guidelines in Asthma Management Across all Age Groups, presented by Nancy Nathenson, BS, RRT.
