Brand-new study shows that a combination of inhaled steroids and long acting beta agonist (LABA) does not bring down the incidence of extreme Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) aggravations.

Additional studies present that combined treatment elevated the patient’s chance of getting pneumonia by 63 percent, viral respiratory infections by 22 percent and fungal infections in the mouth, such as oral thrush, by 59 percent.

However, the combination therapy importantly decreased the risk of moderate COPD flare-ups compared with single drug therapy.

General death rate was not minimized using the two-drug approach compared to the single drug therapy.

Dr. Gustavo J. Rodrigo from the Hospital Central de las Fuerzas Armadas in Montevideo, Uruguay, and his associates, reexamined the efficacy of the combination therapy versus the single drug therapy.

After this wide systematic review, Dr. Rodrigo and associates pointed out the defect in the present-day guidelines in handling patients with COPD. The drug combination is still being employed for severe and very and severe COPD patients.

According to the authors, the benefits did not achieve the advised clinically significant minimal deviations.

They concluded that patients with severe COPD should be advisably treated with LABA alone, until advance research would distinguish which type or severity of COPD would most probably gain from the combined therapy.

From Reuters Health:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In people who suffer from COPD, a progressive lung disease that makes it hard to breathe, adding an inhaled steroid to a so-called “long-acting beta-2 agonist” may do more harm than good, new research hints.