Featuring Colin Holyk, BSc (Pharm) Pharmacist
What Are Inhaler Tubes and How Are They Used

Duration: 1 minute, 15 seconds

Regarding patients who have difficulties with breathing - perhaps they’re asthmatic or they are COPD patients there’s a number of different inhalers available to help them with their breathing.

So the spacer devices are very easy to use, there’s a number of them on the market, and I’m going to show you how to use them. So basically the spacer is something like this product right here, and using one of the inhalers, this is how it really works.

Taking the little mouthguard off the inhaler you’re going to insert the inhaler into the backside of the spacer device, just sort of sits in like so. And the idea is when you actually press down and deliver a dose of the medication in the inhaler the spray’s going to get trapped inside the spacing device, so it allows the patient more time to get the dose into the lung. Timing is not as critical and there’s no spray hitting the back of the throat.

So once the inhaler is inside the spacer device we want to shake it up, you can just shake the whole unit together, 10 or 15 good shakes. When you’re ready, again, thumbs on the bottom of the inhaler, fingers on the top,  breathe out first.

I want you to get all the air out first so that when you breathe in you can, up to your mouth, put your lips right around the spacer device mouthpiece, press down and inhale.

Nice deep inhalation is best and if you like you can even keep your lips around it, breathe in and out, in through the mouth, out through the nose, two or three breaths, and you’ve got a larger amount absorbed into your lung than just with the inhaler alone.

Presenter: Mr. Colin Holyk, Pharmacist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Pharmacist