Power Washing Lungs

[kenna2]

My friend on Facebook who is a nurse posted this video about power washing the lungs for a rare lung disorder. It looks interesting and it made me wonder if this is something we as CF patients could have done. I know they do something like with when you have a bronchoscopy. With the added vest (which was cool to see) I wonder what kind added benefits we could get from this. I know that power washing is a great way to get rid of the biofilms that plague us. Does anyone know anything more about this procedure? Wanted to get your thoughts and ideas about this?
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/09/what-lung-washing-looks-like-video/?utm_campaign=cc+posts&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=170104+lung+washing&dynid=facebook-_-cc+posts-_-social-_-social-_-170104+lung+washing

 

[Rebjane]

Hmm, my guess is in CF the relief would be temporary. Does not fix the underlying problem. Daughter had a bronchoscope and they did a lavage and sputum collection when she was two and I thought it was great they would get rid of mucus; got her initially more inflamed from the procedure and there is the additional risk of introducing another hospital born bacteria(boy I sound like a downer)

 

[triples15]

Hey Kenna,

Yep, exactly what Rebjane said. I've had 2 brochoscopies with lavage (saline and mucomyst). I asked the doc why it couldn't be used as tool for cleaning out the lungs and he stated that the mucus starts regenerating within minutes and there is risk of introducing new infection associated with it.

With that said, however, I still often wonder why it wouldn't be at least somewhat effective. Okay, we know that the mucus immediately comes back, however couldn't the "power washing" as they called it help to clear out old hard mucus plugs and maybe reduce the pseudomonas/staph/mrsa colonies etc..? I would think maybe starting with "fresh" mucus might be better than the "old" stuff?? Anyway, I'm obviously no doctor or scientist but on the surface it seems like it should help. My doctor only does bronchs when something is clearly up, but sputum cultures aren't showing anything out of the ordinary. He says he never uses it just for "lavage" (washing).

Anyway, I think it's a very interesting topic and I'm with you on being curious about it.

Take Care,

Autumn

 

[Jadegreen9404]

I saved this video to my facebook for the same reason. I figured my sons team would saw more or less what everyones saying here in this thread though...its still really cool!