Pneumonia: symptoms and treatment

Pneumonia is a very common, but very dangerous disease that affects the lung tissue. This disease can develop in people of all ages. Symptoms of pneumonia in most cases do not allow a clear diagnosis without a diagnostic study.

Etiology

Pneumonia is an infectious disease. More often it develops in people after hypothermia or in conditions of reduced immunity. The most common causative agents of pneumonia in humans are the following microorganisms:

• Pneumococcus;
• staphylococcus;
• streptococci;
• Klebsiella;
• Proteus
• hemophilic bacillus;
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa;
• legionella;
• viruses;
• mycoplasmas;
• mushrooms.

Symptoms of pneumonia, as well as the course of this disease, largely depend on which pathogen caused its development.

Due to the fact that such a pathology is more often formed in people with somewhat weakened immune systems, the most typical patients with this diagnosis are children, as well as elderly and senile people. Persons with diseases accompanied by immunodeficiency (HIV, patients after a viral infection, such as influenza, and people after chemotherapy) are also at risk.

Views

There are a large number of classifications of pneumonia. The main ones are the following:

1. For possible nosocomial infection.
2. By pathogenesis.
3. With the flow.
4. According to the severity of the disease.
5. By area of ​​defeat.
6. By the presence of complications.

According to the first classification, pneumonia is divided into hospital (which developed no later than 48 hours after discharge from the hospital or while the patient was in the hospital no later than 3 days after hospitalization) and community-acquired.

According to pathogenesis, it can be divided into primary and secondary. The primary develops as an independent disease, and the secondary is a complication of an already existing pathology (lung injury, transferred flu).

With the course of this disease can be acute and chronic. In the first case, all the symptoms of pneumonia pass quickly enough, and in the second, they are still determined 4 weeks after their occurrence.

According to the severity of the course, the following forms of pneumonia are distinguished:

• mild;
• medium degree;
• severe degree.

In the first case, the patient, subject to all the doctor’s instructions, can theoretically be treated on an outpatient basis, but the doctor will still try to hospitalize such a person, since all cases of pneumonia should go through the hospital.

Moderate pneumonia is the most common. In this case, the patient is immediately hospitalized in a hospital and treatment measures are started.

People with severe pneumonia must be immediately hospitalized in the intensive care unit.

By the area of ​​the lesion, pneumonia can be:

• segmental;
• shared;
• total.

In addition, this disease can occur both with complications and without them.

Clinical symptoms

With the development of this pathology, the patient may present the following complaints:

1. Cough.
2. Dyspnea.
3. Temperature rise.
4. Chest pains.
5. General weakness.

These symptoms of pneumonia are common to many diseases of the respiratory system, so the patient does not always consult a doctor in a timely manner. This leads to the fact that doctors are not always able to save a person.

Cough

This clinical manifestation is the most common symptom of pneumonia. Cough with this disease is first dry. A few days later, sputum begins to pass. More often it is colorless, whitish or yellow. In cases of lack of treatment, irrational therapy or a low level of immunity, a purulent green sputum may be released from the patient. With an unfavorable course, blood streaks can sometimes be determined in it. This symptom of pneumonia is threatening to humans, indicating a serious damage to the lung tissue.

With this disease, a cough can be lingering, painful. Because of it, the patient often has a night's sleep disturbance.

In some cases, pneumonia without coughing is detected. Symptoms in such situations become even more specific and usually lead to the fact that neither the patient nor the doctor thinks about pneumonia as a possible reason for their development.

Dyspnea

This clinical symptom develops in almost every patient with moderate or severe pneumonia. It is due to the presence of a pathological process in the lung tissue, which interferes with normal gas exchange. Especially often shortness of breath is a symptom of viral pneumonia.

In the case of this disease, the patient may develop respiratory failure. The degree of its severity is determined including the respiratory rate. This indicator increases with shortness of breath. As a result, the following degrees of respiratory failure are distinguished:

• 1st - characterized by respiratory rate, is in the range of 21-25 per minute;
• 2nd - set in case a person breathes with a frequency of 26-30 per minute;
• 3rd — characterized by an increase in respiratory rate of more than 30 per minute.

In the case of respiratory failure of the 2nd or 3rd degree, a patient with pneumonia should be treated in the intensive care unit. At the same time, doctors should constantly monitor the level of oxygen suture in the blood and respiratory rate.

Temperature rise

Symptoms of pneumonia often orient the patient to self-medication. One of them is an increase in temperature. Often, the patient takes an antipyretic and believes that the main criterion for his recovery is the indicator on the thermometer. In fact, an increase in body temperature in any infectious disease is a protective reaction of the body. In cases where it does not reach 38.5 ° C (for children - 38 ^° C), antipyretic drugs are generally not recommended.

With this disease, the severity of this symptom can be very different. Some patients have pneumonia without fever. Symptoms of a different nature, such as coughing, weakness, are accepted by the patient as a sign of a common cold and as a result, insufficient attention is paid to this pathological condition. More often this is observed in elderly people, or in patients with immunodeficiency.

With pneumonia, the temperature often rises to 38.5-40.5 ^about C. This condition is accompanied by chills, severe weakness, pain in the joints, aching muscles, headache. Depending on the pathogen, the temperature may remain high constantly or bother the patient only at certain times of the day.

Chest soreness

Pneumonia contributes to lung tissue damage. There are no nerve fibers on it, so chest pain can develop only in those cases when pleura is involved in the pathological process. If the infection spreads to it, then they talk about the development of bronchopneumonia.

Soreness in the defeat of the pleura is quite acute, aggravated by coughing and turning the chest. Often, it forces the patient to take a forced position - sitting, leaning with his body tilted forward.

Also, chest pain with pneumonia can develop in the case of a prolonged painful cough.

External signs

There are several external manifestations of pneumonia, in addition to the indicated symptoms, which can be noticed without conducting diagnostic studies. First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the presence of a blush in the patient. It has especially high diagnostic value in cases when the person is pale. Pneumonia is characterized by the development of a blush on the cheek on the same side as the affected lung.

In addition, it can be noted that a patient with pneumonia does not have catarrhal symptoms (sore throat, runny nose). The disease begins with a sharp rise in temperature, and then a cough develops.

Symptomatic pneumonia

In adults, this type of pathology is extremely rare. This is due to the fact that at this age the body responds to a pathogenic microorganism in the most typical way for itself - an increase in body temperature. In the future, a cough occurs, which not only indicates damage to the lung tissue, but also helps to remove the infection. Symptoms of pneumonia without temperature in adults usually appear only in those cases when the patient has a serious decrease in immunity (for example, in the terminal stage of HIV).

Treatment principles

Self-treatment of pneumonia is not recommended. This is due to the possibility of developing serious complications, as well as the likelihood of harming your own body with irrational therapy.

Only a specialist can determine the symptoms of pneumonia and treatment in a rational way. In case of development of problems with the respiratory system, it is recommended to immediately contact a therapist or pulmonologist. He will prescribe a rational course of treatment, which may include drugs of the following groups:

1. Antibiotics.
2. Antiviral drugs.
3. Mucolytics.
4. Antipyretic.
5. Antihistamines.
6. Antitussive.

In addition to drugs for faster recovery, the patient is recommended various types of physiotherapeutic treatment, for example:

• magnetotherapy;
• ultra high frequency wave therapy;
• chest massage;
• inhalation with bronchodilators or mucolytics.

When prescribing a specific treatment regimen, the doctor proceeds from the severity of the symptoms of pneumonia, as well as the general condition of the patient.

Antibacterial and antiviral drugs

Symptoms of pneumonia and treatment of this pathology have a clear correlation between themselves. The less susceptible to destruction the infection, the more serious antibiotics will have to be prescribed. Currently, there are a large number of drugs that can suppress almost any infection. Among antibiotics for pneumonia, drugs of the following groups are most often used:

• cephalosporins ("Ceftriaxone", "Cefazolin");
• macrolides ("Azithromycin", "Erythromycin");
• protected penicillins (Amoxiclav);
• carbopinems ("Imipenem");
• fluoroquinolones (Ofloxacin);
• Lincosamides ("Klindomycin", "Linkomycin").

In severe cases, the patient may be prescribed antibacterial agents from several pharmacological groups at once.

In the 21st century, symptoms of viral pneumonia are increasingly common. For their treatment, antiviral drugs, as well as immunoglobulins, are used. Rational therapy of such pneumonia should begin literally from the first hours from the onset of the development of the disease, otherwise their effectiveness is significantly reduced.

Mucolytics

Drugs from this group are used in cases where the patient is concerned about coughing with difficult sputum. These drugs can thin it. After their use, sputum departs much easier, cleansing the lungs and bronchi faster, and also delivering less unpleasant sensations to the patient. The most commonly used mucolytics are:

• "Bromhexine";
• Ambroxol;
• "Acetylcysteine."

A feature of Bromhexine and Ambroxol is the fact that they contribute to the production of surfactant. It is a substance located in the lung tissue and not allowing it to subside.

Antipyretic

To bring down the body temperature with pneumonia should only be in those cases when it reaches significant numbers (more than 38.5 ° C). For this purpose, the following drugs are most often used:

• "Paracetamol";
• Ibuprofen
• "Aspirin";
• Diclofenac.

All these drugs have side effects in the form of a negative effect on the gastric mucosa. As for Aspirin, it should never be prescribed to underage patients. Its reception by the child can lead to the most negative consequences. If symptoms of pneumonia without fever are observed in adults, it is not worth using such drugs.

Antihistamines and antitussives

Symptoms of pneumonia in adults can be offset by the effects of these drugs. Antihistamines are most often prescribed to the patient in order to reduce the severity of the inflammatory response to the action of pathogenic microflora. Most often, the following drugs of this group are prescribed:

1. Suprastin.
2. Klimastin.
3. Loratadine.

Antitussive drugs are recommended for those patients who suffer from severe painful cough. The most popular of them are the following:

• "Herbion";
• "Codeine";
• Codelac
• Sinecode
• Libexin;
• "Broncholitin".

Their use can reduce the severity of cough and improve the general condition of the patient.