[Inhalation therapy--advantages and difficulties]

Asthma bronchiale is a very common disease in our western countries. According to the SAPALDIA study (Swiss study on air pollution and lung diseases in adults) 7% of the Swiss population suffer from bronchial asthma or have complained once or several times about asthmatic symptoms. Roughly 3% of the Swiss suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The standard treatment for both these conditions of bronchi and bronchioles is inhalation therapy. The enormous advantages of inhalation therapy, i.e. direct action of the drugs at the site of disease and the good acceptance by patients are opposed by the difficulties for correct inhalation. All devices, pressure nebulizers, powder delivery systems or aerosol dispensers have to be explained in depth to patients to achieve optimal results. Teaching of inhalation technique is the mission of the physician, in hospitals also of physiotherapists and nursing staff. Patients with chronic pulmonary diseases are cared for by the lung leagues whose collaborators are carefully trained for treating, instructing and surveilling patients.