Bronchietasis

What is the average life expectancy for patients who has bronchietasis?

[National Jewish Health]

People with bronchiectasis are living much longer than they ever have in the past.  However it is not possible to specify an "average life expectancy" because there are too many other important variables, such as your age, the extent of lung involvement with the bronchiectasis, frequent or infrequent infections, is the infection just with common "run-of-the-mill" bacteria or are your lungs infected with a form of tuberculosis (TB) called mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and is there an underlying cause of your bronchiectasis, such as cystic fibrosis (CF). Also dependent upon whether you smoke or don't, and live a healthy lifestyle.

The best advice we can give is that you seek consultation and care with either a lung specialist, also known as a pulmonologist, who can put all the characteristics of your bronchiectasis together and come-up an approximation.  However, if the bronchiectasis is treated and infection is controlled, your life expectancy could be very close to the predicted normal value.

Good luck, but do see a doctor who knows a lot about bronchiectasis.  In that regard the doctors who often have the greatest experience are those who specialize in cystic fibrosis so, even if you don't have CF, you might want to seek out such a specialist, and these doctors are most readily available in CF clinics at medical school affiliated university hospitals.

Good luck.