Emergency treatment

Emergency treatment for asthma is required if the symptoms worsen or are not controlled.

Listed below are the criteria for emergency treatment of asthma.

• If short-acting bronchodilators fail to relieve symptoms.
• If it is difficult to talk because of symptoms such as wheezing, coughing or breathlessness.
• If exhausted because of the increased effort to breathe.
• If there is tightening of the muscles between the ribs and neck because of difficulty in breathing.
• If you are unable to sleep, work or to do normal activities.
• If peak flow reading is below fifty per cent of the best reading.
• If symptoms persist even after resting for a while.
• If lips and fingernails turn blue.

Prolonged attacks of asthma that do not respond to medicines can be life threatening. When a severe asthmatic attack does not respond to medicines, it is called status asthmaticus. It requires immediate emergency treatment as the oxygen level falls and carbon dioxide collects in the blood. As a result you will feel drowsy or light-headed.

Death due to asthma occurs only when people do not take the prescribed medicines or delay emergency treatment when symptoms worsen.