health

Emphysema is known to shorten a patient’s lifespan. It is the fourth most
common cause of death in the United States as of 2008, being responsible
for 4.5 percent of all deaths and a contributing factor in another 4.3 percent.
Some patients, however, live longer than others depending on the
cause of their emphysema and the measurement of their lung capacity at
diagnosis. Patients who have smoked twenty cigarettes per day for twenty
years or longer with a severely reduced breathing capacity have the worst
prognosis; only 5 percent survive for twelve years after diagnosis.