15. How is COPD Balloon Therapy performed?

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Bronchoscopic treatment is applied in patients with narrowing of the airways and thickening of goblet cells due to chronic bronchitis caused by tobacco exposure. Entering through the intubation tube with a bronchoscope, COPD balloon desquamation is applied to the cell layer covering the inner layer of all accessible airways, primarily the 8 to 3 mm airways, to expel the goblet cells. For this procedure, COPD balloons selected according to the diameter of the bronchi in the respiratory tract are used.

These balloons are inflated and deflated with adjustable pressure and frequency with the help of an electronic pump, bringing the thickened inner layer of the bronchi back to its former thickness by foaming. The latex-free mesh-covered balloon allows the bronchus to reach its original width by converting the thickened goblet cell layer, which causes sputum production in the respiratory tract, into foamy liquid. The foamy goblet cell layer, which turns into foamy sputum, is expelled by aspiration through the bronchoscope channel. In this way, all bronchi in both lungs that can be reached with a bronchoscope are freed from the chronic bronchitis and altered bronchial epithelium layer caused by smoking as a result of COPD balloon.