Coimbatore : Bronchial Thermoplasty, an outpatient procedure, has turned out to be a boon for adult patients with severe asthma to cure it completely, a senior Pulmonologist said here.

In India, there are at least 1.6 lakh asthmatics of the 15 to 20 million sufferers become resistant to medicine that can hep to control asthma symptoms.

They were known to not get any relief from severe asthma with available medicines including high-dose treatment with inhaled or oral corticosteroids, Dr V R Pattabiraman, Department of Pulmonology, Royal Care Hospital here said.

Treatments failed with the and they become prone to repeated hospitalisation following serious attacks and not many were aware of Bronchial Thermoplasty that was readily available to cure the issue, Pattabiraman said.

Stating that industrial cities like Coimbatore and Bengaluru have become prone to Asthma, he said that with specialised catheter the disease can be cured in three sittings.

Being the one of a few hospitals in India, Royal care has already cured five patients, including a 70 year old chronic asthmatic and the cost of treatment will be around Rs.three to Rs.four lakh, which could come down in due course, as the catheter has to be imported, he said.