Is emphysema a long term or short term disease?

Yes: Emphysema (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a lifelong disease that can progress and gradually worsen if not adequately treated. Treatment, however, will not reverse the emphysema but slow its progression. Hence the importance of maintaining the treatment regimen, even when "doing well.".

Yes: The short answer, it is long term. Don't get it. Don't smoke.

Yes: Emphysema is a permanent scarring of the lung tissue. Once the scarring happens there is no reversing it. Medications for emphysema only help the scarred tissue work better but it will never work normally.

Yes: Emphysema is a long term disease, plain and simple.

Yes: Emphysema- also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long term, incurable disease.

Yes: It is a long term condition. The air sacks in the lung have been damaged, most often by exposure to tobacco smoke, and will not regrow. If the person stops the damaging exposure, the damage will slow way down. If he or she doesn't stop the exposure, then the damage continues to accumulate. There are treatment which can help the person to breathe a bit more easily. Discuss this with your physi.

Yes: This is a long term illness, and responds slowly to therapy. The focus of treatment is to conserve lung function as much as possible, while at the same time attempting to reverse the damage to whatever extent possible.

Yes: Emphysema is cigarette-related destruction of lung tissue, which cannot regenerate, so as such it is a long term, incurable disease. In fact, studies suggest that even after quitting smoking, the destruction of lung tissue can continue for at least two years.

Life-long...: COPD is a chronic, incurable and slowly progressive disease. Once a patient has this disease, they will have it for the rest of their lives.