A Medical Breakthrough for Lung Disease Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

A Medical Breakthrough for Lung Disease

This new procedure can be life changing for COPD patients

A tiny valve implant helps Jim Hogan breathe more easily. Ethan Hill Jim Hogan's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was getting worse, making it hard to finish his weekly — or even walk down the driveway. Lucky for him, his golf partner, a doctor, came across a journal article about Zephyr, a lung valve that was generating medical buzz in Europe. Also on the Horizon: Nuvaira, a radio-frequency ablation that disrupts nerve signals and dilates the airways. In trials it reduced COPD flare-ups in patients. When the FDA clear-ed Zephyr for use in the U.S. in 2018, Hogan lobbied to get insurance coverage for the procedure, traveling to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, the first U.S. center to use the valve to treat severe emphysema. After a few hurdles — his insurance company considered it investigational, and he had to appeal — he had the valve implanted in April 2019. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. It's a serious procedure, with a device the size of a pencil eraser inserted via a bronchoscope. The one-way valve blocks air from invading the damaged part of the lungs, where it can get trapped and hinder . "The instant I woke up from anesthesia, I felt the difference,” he says. "It took 20 years to develop and gain approval for a treatment,” says Gerard J. Criner, M.D., director of the Temple Lung Center, where Hogan had his procedure. “It's less invasive than other treatments. It costs less. And it improves exercise function and quality of life.” AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS