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Where do you buy 7% saline for neb?

MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: 4 hours ago | Replies (21)

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@yardsend

Hi Sue,
This discussion seems to have ended inconclusively several years ago. I have mild BE and have been doing daily lung clearance without nebulizer. I'm thinking about trying one of these salt inhalers. You have any advice? BTW, I could probably help with dosage calculation.
Many thanks,
Sarah

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Replies to "Hi Sue, This discussion seems to have ended inconclusively several years ago. I have mild BE..."

I wasn’t diagnosed when this discussion took place and salt inhalers/pipes are new to me. Like you, I have mild bronchiectasis, but was thought to have MAC until cultures from a bronch at Mayo were negative. They had started me on airway clearance 2x daily with albuterol (mild asthma), Aerobika and postural drainage. Once the cultures were back, they let me go to daily. Postural drainage caused reflux so stopped that.
Penn pulmonologist suggested 7% saline last fall to try to prevent the recurrent URI’s I get in winter. It seems to have helped.
Looking at the inhalers on Amazon, my biggest concern would be for the cleaning since we’re prone to unusual infections. I sterilize mine after use and the saline solution is sterile.

Could you get a nebulizer? I bought mine off Amazon and get saline there, too.

Here was an article published after this discussion took place:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32827399/
Once again, it seems like the results are inconclusive. I share the concern @pacathy has about sanitation. In addition to my concern about the inhaler, I worry about the purity of the salt itself. The hypertonic saline in vials is sterile, but the salt in an inhaler is not; additionally it may be contaminated by debris, heavy metals and other substances.
Finally, with an inhaler, there is no way to measure the amount of saline - it depends on the user, how deeply they breathe and the saline content of the salt itself.

If you have mild BE like I do, it may not be necessary to nebulize saline every day - I use 7% saline about twice a week, and step up to daily if I have an exacerbation of my BE or Asthma or a respiratory illness. But I do airway clearance daily - promoting the elimination of mus=cus either with exercise or my Aerobika.