Suggest Treatment For Excessive Mucus In The Lungs

Posted on Tue, 12 Jul 2016

Question: My father is 98 years old. He has mucus in lungs that has persisted for about 6 months. He has seen several doctors who prescribed meds, xrays, etc. without a notable change from any meds. He also has a catheter and urine appears to contain a cloudy substance like mucus. This has not been tested and doesn't seem to concern the doctors when it is discussed. Is there a condition that would cause this? No fever, SOB and he is mentally alert.

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Seems to be due to COPD. Steam inhalation should help.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I am sorry to hear about your father. I need to know if your father was a smoker. Smoking damages the lungs and the clearance system for the secretions and leads to a condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is likely that your father has COPD and thereby impaired clearance of the mucus. This would lead to clogging of the airways and thereby would cause respiratory distress. Give him steam inhalation. Water in form of vapor will reach deep inside and would help in diluting the mucus and would thus provide relief. This has to be done multiple times a day. The alternative is home nebulization with normal saline (0.9% NaCl) or hypertonic saline (3% NaCl).

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any further queries.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T