Managing Chronic and Acute COPD Exacerbations

Healthcare professionals across the world utilize the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guideline to guide the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The guideline incorporates evidence-based recommendations regarding the assessment of disease severity, choice of pharmacologic treatment, and strategies for the management and prevention of acute exacerbations. The GOLD guideline recently underwent a major revision in 2017, in addition to a minor revision in 2018, to account for new evidence surrounding the assessment of disease severity, as well as therapeutic recommendations for the management of COPD. The updated GOLD report includes a simplified version of the ABCD assessment tool, which separates symptoms and exacerbation risk from the severity of airflow limitation. Additionally, there were also modifications to the pharmacotherapy treatment algorithm and new recommendations for the prevention and management of acute COPD exacerbations.