Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ZIK07yBWRcA A study just published online by the New England Journal of Medicine is challenging the way we manage asthma.   For decades, inhalation of the short-acting bronchodilator albuterol, sold as Proventil and Ventolin, has been the recommended treatment for attacks with the addition of an inhaled steroid for maintenance of easy breathing. A collaborative group from New Zealand, Australia, and Britain now demonstrates that the inhaled steroid+long acting bronchodilator combo budesonide-formoterol, marketed as Symbicort, and only used when needed not only works effectively to stop asthma attacks but also prevents them with less steroid exposure for the patient. The study included 688 adult asthma patients in 3 treatment groups who randomly received either as-needed albuterol, as-needed budesonide-formoterol, or daily budesonide with the addition of albuterol as needed.  The results showed that as-needed steroid+long-acting bronchodilator reduced the incidence of severe asthma a