Question: What Is the Advantage of Using a Spacer with an MDI?
Answer: Many people have a hard time learning how to use metered dose inhalers correctly. Quite often, too much asthma medicine ends up in the mouth instead of in the lung's small airways where it is most needed to lessen asthma symptoms. The result can be poor control of asthma, as well as side effects from getting the wrong dose of medicine.
Using a spacer can help you get the right amount of asthma medicine, especially during an asthma attack, when your technique is apt to be even shakier. A spacer is a plastic tube that attaches to your inhaler. It holds the medicine mist long enough for you to inhale it into your lungs slowly and steadily. Spacers can also be used with small masks that may make it easier to use an MDI with a young child.
Here are some common spacers used with metered dose inhalers:
- Aerochamber®
- E-Z Spacer®
- InspirEase®
- Vortex™
- OptiChamber®
- PocketChamber®
