A spacer is a device that is attached to an inhaler and acts like a reservoir of air into which the inhaler is activated. The patient then breathes the medication in from the spacer, instead of the inhaler. Using the spacer makes it much easier to coordinate the some times difficult process of activating the inhaler and breathing. Most patients do not use an inhaler properly, but they do use a spacer properly, allowing a higher percentage of medication to be inhaled. Another advantage of the spacer is that large particles of medicine that would ordinarily stick on the throat instead stick on the walls of the spacer, therefore reducing potential side effects associated with these particles.
Doctors now prescribe spacers for use with all inhaled medications .
Steroids are both the most useful and the most dangerous medications that we have for asthma treatment. Oral steroids are absolutely necessary for severe asthma, as the lives of many patients have been saved by their appropriate use. However, oral steroids carry substantial risks when given over a long period of time. Therefore, most physicians try to use inhaled steroids, which are extremely active when inhaled into the lungs but have little systemic effect because they are destroyed as they enter the body. The current medical trend is to use inhaled steroids as the first line of treatment in patients with asthma who wheeze more than two times a week, and to use oral steroids for a brief period of time during serious exacerbations of asthma .