Refractory asthma – An old disorder: Novel approaches for effective control

Bronchial asthma is an inflammatory disorder of airways characterized by hyper-responsiveness to a wide range of triggers and is associated with variable airflow obstruction that remits spontaneously or with the treatment. Several phenotype of asthma not responding to the currently acceptable standard therapy of high dose inhaled gluco-corticosteroids along with along acting β2 agonists come under the purview of refractory asthma. This condition is a heterogeneous and complex disease that requires a multi-disciplinary approach to identify accurately various sub-phenotypes to enable improved understanding of the pathogenesis and development of effective management strategies including use of novel methods and targeted therapy.