Sheba Tests a New Biological Glue to Heal Emphysema

Having emphysema - which is almost always caused by smoking and affects thousands of Israelis - feels like having to breathe underwater. Bubbles of air form in the lungs and expand, causing the volume of the lung to increase while reducing the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide. In later stages, patients suffer from shortness of breath, poor body functioning, repeated lung infections and the need for oxygen balloons. There is no effective treatment for rehabilitating the damaged lung cells.

Only a few patients get a lung transplant. During the past decade, surgeons have been treating emphysema patients with an operation to reduce the volume of the lungs by removing damaged parts so the remaining tissue can function better. But because most patients at this stage are older and in poor physical condition, the mortality rate of the surgery is 10% and complications are many.

Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, in cooperation with a Boston medical center, has recently been using a new experimental technique based on introducing biological glue into the affected areas to cause the lung cells to collapse and thus reduce the volume of damaged tissue; antibiotics are mixed in to prevention infection. After this technique was tried on hundreds of sheep at Tufts University in Boston, its experimental use on patients was approved by the Health Ministry in Jerusalem and US authorities. While in Boston it has passed through Phase 1 studies to show it is safe, at Sheba it has entered Phase II trials to see if it is effective. So far two patients have undergone the procedure here (while under general anesthesia), and 10 more operations are due to be performed during the next six months.

Prof. Alon Yellin of the thoracic surgery department said it was too early to see an improvement in the first two patients, both over 50 and longtime smokers, as the glue was injected in only two sites each. But if they continue to feel well, the ministry will allow injections in two more procedures and year-long followups to determine whether the treatment can overcome the problems found with surgical volume reduction.