How Is Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Treated?
The goals of treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are to prevent more lung scarring, relieve your symptoms, maintain your ability to be active and get around, keep you healthy, and improve your quality of life. Treatment can’t remove scarring that has already happened. As a result, diagnosing and treating IPF as early as possible, before a lot of scarring has taken place, is very important. Treatment is usually based on your age, medical history, any medical problems you may have, and how much the IPF has advanced. Treatments can include: · Medicines to reduce inflammation (swelling) in your lungs and/or prevent more scarring· Oxygen therapy· Pulmonary rehabilitation· Lung transplantation Medicines The main treatment for IPF is medicine to reduce inflammation. Many doctors also add a medicine to suppress your body’s immune system. These treatments can prevent further scarring and increase survival time in some people, but they don’t work for everyone. Prednisone The anti-inflam
