Nebulizer Versus Handheld Maintenance Therapy for Patients With COPD

In stable out-patients with an established diagnosis of severe to very severe COPD the hypothesis is that delivery of similar long-acting, maintenance medications via a breath-enhanced jet nebulizer provides significant improvements in ratings of dyspnea and health status compared with continuing therapy with handheld device(s). This hypothesized benefit could be due to: Patients with severe to very severe COPD may not consistently use their handheld inhaler(s) correctly every day and therefore not achieve optimal bronchodilation/symptom benefit; and/or A breath-enhanced jet nebulizer can deliver smaller size particles and a greater fine particle fraction (\< 5 μm) than handheld therapy in patients with COPD using Acceptable technique.