Once emphysema advances to the severe stage, individuals may lose an average of 9 years of life expectancy. Various treatment options are available, with doctors reserving surgery for the most severe cases. Getting treatment early and quitting smoking can make a difference in a person's outlook.
Especially if your COPD is diagnosed early, if you have mild stage COPD, and your disease is well managed and controlled, you may be able to live for 10 or even 20 years after diagnosis.
But the condition can be controlled. People with mild emphysema who quit smoking have a normal life expectancy. Those who adopt good health habits can enjoy a fairly normal lifestyle for a long time.
"It's not a death sentence by any means. Many people will live into their 70s, 80s, or 90s with COPD.” But that's more likely, he says, if your case is mild and you don't have other health problems like heart disease or diabetes.
Emphysema is usually caused by cigarette smoking. There is no cure, but the condition can be managed using medications and adjustments to lifestyle. If you have shortness of breath or a long-term productive cough (a cough that produces mucus or phlegm), see your doctor for a lung function test.
Once emphysema advances to the severe stage, individuals may lose an average of 9 years of life expectancy. Various treatment options are available, with doctors reserving surgery for the most severe cases. Getting treatment early and quitting smoking can make a difference in a person's outlook.
How Serious Is Your Emphysema? Stage 4 is also called very severe emphysema. It can be particularly hard if you're 65 and older because breathing problems are more likely to interfere with basic daily tasks like dressing, cooking, or climbing stairs, and cause symptoms that send you to the hospital.
COPD is terminal. People with COPD who do not die from another condition will usually die from COPD. Until 2011, the Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease assessed the severity and stage of COPD using only forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1).
Emphysema usually progresses slowly and the majority of patients do not notice the changes in their breathing. Some patients do experience a faster onset of symptoms, though that is less common.
End-stage emphysema, or stage 4 emphysema, can mean living with a decade or more of breathing problems, tiredness, heart problems or other health concerns that impact your ability to live your life to your fullest.
Emphysema gets worse over time. You cannot undo the damage to your lungs. Over time, you may find that: You get short of breath even when you do things like get dressed or fix a meal.
Results: Overall, high mortality was seen in this cohort (12.7 deaths per 100 person-years; 292 total deaths).
Emphysema can't be cured. It's progressive, so over time it will get harder and harder for you to catch your breath. But you might not know you have the disease for the first few years unless your doctor tests your breathing.
Emphysema has no cure, and patients live with severe shortness of breath that makes daily activities like walking or showering difficult.
How Serious Is Your Emphysema? Stage 2 is also called moderate emphysema. But that doesn't always mean that your disease is moderate. If you're young and otherwise healthy, you could have severe lung damage and still be at stage 2.
It takes several years to progress to the final stages of COPD or emphysema, but lifestyle factors play a role. Quitting smoking can significantly improve the outlook. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , COPD can progress quickly in people with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency who also smoke.
Stop smoking.
This is the most important measure you can take for your overall health and the only one that might halt the progression of emphysema. Join a smoking cessation program if you need help giving up smoking. As much as possible, avoid secondhand smoke.
Stage 2 COPD life expectancy is 2.2 years.
In this stage, symptoms become more severe: intensified shortness of breath, tiredness and coughing, and more frequent flare-ups. Also, there may be new signs of emphysema progression, such as more frequent respiratory infections, like a cold or the flu, tightness of the chest, trouble catching your breath and others.
Oxygen therapy can help people with severe emphysema that have low levels of oxygen in their blood to breathe better. The treatment involves administering oxygen either through a mask, or through two small tubes that enter the nose (nasal prongs).
When to use oxygen for emphysema. A doctor may recommend that a person begin using oxygen therapy when their blood oxygen saturation falls below 88% or their blood oxygen level falls below 55 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) at rest.
Stage III: Severe
During stage III of COPD, patients experience intensified symptoms, such as intensified shortness of breath, coughing and tiredness as well as more frequent flare-ups.
Stage 3 (severe COPD): Early symptoms become worse and you might notice you're having more flare-ups than before.