Context

In the UK approximately 4 million adults have asthma. In 2020, over 1300 adults died from asthma in the UK, in 2020/21, there were 41,150 hospital admissions where the primary diagnosis was asthma, with an average age of 41, while in 2019/20 it was estimated that 6.5% of GP patients in England (one in fifteen) had asthma and had been prescribed asthma-related drugs within the past year]. The overall cost of treatment of patients with asthma in the UK has been estimated to be over 1 billion/year.¹

This session focuses on the treatment of adult patients with previously diagnosed asthma who present to the Emergency Department with an acute episode of breathlessness.

The most recent guidelines published by the British Thoracic Society (BTS) in November 2024 state that patients who died from asthma had several factors contributing to their death. These ranged from disease severity, medical management, and behaviour or psychosocial status.²

In their 2019 asthma update, the BTS noted the following:

• 5.4 million people are currently being treated for the condition in the UK
• On average, three people die from an asthma attack in the UK every day
• The NHS spends around 1 billion a year treating and caring for people with asthma.
• In 2020 (the most recent data available), 1,335 people died from an asthma attack in England and Wales. Of these, 61% were among people aged 80 or above

These guidelines are evidence-based. The November 2024 guideline update forms the basis for the recommendations made in this session. Although childhood asthma is not considered further in this session, adult guidelines for acute asthma are appropriate for children over 12.