The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has updated its guidelines to include endobronchial valves as an appropriate routine treatment for severe emphysema, an advanced form of COPD.

This announcement comes on the heels of positive safety and effectiveness data from multiple randomized clinical trials of Pulmonx’s Zephyr Endobronchial Valves (EBV). In the UK, approximately 400,000 people live with emphysema, a condition characterized by damage to the air sacs in the lungs that allows air to escape.

Zephyr EBVs are small, minimally-invasive valves placed in the airways of the lungs that block the damaged regions. This allows the healthy lung regions to work more efficiently, and leads to improved breathing and a better quality of life for the patient.