Many patients labelled as having severe asthma improve once common problems are addressed. Poor inhaler technique, low adherence to inhaled corticosteroids, ongoing smoking or exposure, and comorbidities such as rhinosinusitis, reflux, obesity and dysfunctional breathing all drive exacerbations.
Watch the patient use their inhaler at every review, check prescription refill records, and confirm the diagnosis objectively before calling asthma severe.
- Watch the patient use their inhaler at each visit and correct technique
- Check refill records for inhaled steroid adherence
- Ask about smoking, biomass smoke and occupational exposures
- Treat rhinosinusitis, reflux and obesity where present
- Confirm the diagnosis with objective testing before labelling asthma severe
Why it matters
Correcting the basics settles many patients who seemed to need escalation.
Read the rest in the app
You have read your two free briefings this month. The app carries all 27 specialties, every morning, free — and this finding is waiting in it.
Scan to keep reading on your phone. No account needed to start.
Tomorrow morning, before your first patient
One edition a day for pulmonology, written by the desk, every claim tied to its paper. Six minutes.
Get the app — free