Asthma medications and other respiratory-related medications has improved through time. Let’s take a further look at the advancement of nebulizers and inhalers in the past two centuries.
The use of nebulizers is a form of therapy that has been used for centuries. The benefits include relief from asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases as well as improvement in quality of life due to improved breathing capacity.
Nebulizers and Inhalers Background
France, 1858. The very first powered nebulizer had been introduced by Sales-Girons. The device was meant to atomize liquid medication. The device could be descibed as a bycicle pump where you would need to lift it up and then push it down using a long pump handle. This would push the liquid medication to the atomizer, which is close to the person’s mouth, so that he could breathe in the atomized molecules.
Germany, 1864. The first spray inhaler had been introduced by Dr. Siegel. The device used steam emited from a boiling water under the device. The steam would then be sucked into the inhaler and then blown out through a tube to spray medication onto the person’s face.
Early 1900s. Asthmatic patients begun using hand held atomizers. Asthma cigarettes were also introduced and had been used as treatment for sufferers of asthma.
Asthma cigarettes. These cigarettes contain stramonium and other known herbal remedies. The use of these cigarettes were much like the use of metered dose inhalers and dry-powder inhalers that we know today.
1910. Epinephrine became the primary treatment for asthma attacks when it was introduced as a solution to be nebulized as opposed to injectables. It was then in 1920 that the word aerosol was first heard.
1930. The gas bulb nebulizer was introduced. The first electric nebulizer had also been introduced, named The Pneumostat.
1955. The pMDI was introduced, stands for pressurized metered dose inhaler. Introduced by Dr. George Maison. The idea had been coined from perfume spray devices.
1956. The Medihaler-Epi and the Medihaler-Iso was introduced. Epi for Epinephrine and Iso for Isoproterenol.
1960. A serious asthma epidemic occurred that forced many pharmaceutical companies to come up with fast acting medications. Thus, the albuterol and the first inhaled corticosteroid beclomethasone was found. These replaced the Medihaler-Epi and Medihaler-Iso and from then on the MDI has gone through leaps of changes to what we already have today.
Advancement in asthma medications continues to evolve. There are still other medications that are yet to be discovered that could treat not only asthma but other respiratory related diseases. These new discoveries are providing comfort and hope that asthma sufferers and live a normal and healthy life.