Emphysema is a fairly common chronic disease. According to statistics, this disease is most often diagnosed in older men, although women and even young people may also encounter a similar problem. Why does emphysema appear? What it is? What are the symptoms and treatment of the disease? These questions are interesting to many people.
Emphysema: what is it?
A similar disease is accompanied by the development of increased airiness of the lung tissue. With emphysema, there is too much distension of the pulmonary alveoli and, accordingly, an increase in lung volume. Excess air that accumulates in the pulmonary “sacs” does not participate in respiration, but in turn affects the strength and elasticity of tissues. Emphysema can develop as an independent disease or appear against the background of another disease of the respiratory system, accompanied by airway obstruction.
The main causes of emphysema
The disease occurs as a result of exposure to various factors. To begin with, it is worth mentioning that there are some birth defects that increase the airiness of the lung tissue. In addition, the disease is often caused by the penetration of certain toxic substances into the respiratory tract, therefore smokers and people living in adverse environmental conditions are at risk.
Obstruction of the tissues of the respiratory system leads to an increase in pressure in the alveoli and, accordingly, to the extension of their walls. Therefore, today the causes of the disease include bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive bronchitis and some other diseases. The risk of developing emphysema increases with age. During aging, tissues lose their elasticity and strength.
There is also the so-called compensatory emphysema. What it is? This type of disease occurs as a result of subsidence or removal of part of the lung.
Symptoms of Emphysema
The disease develops slowly. However, there are some characteristic symptoms that the disease causes. Emphysema is accompanied by shortness of breath. In the initial stages, breathing problems only concern the patient with physical exertion, but as lung tissue changes, choking attacks occur even at rest. It is very difficult for patients to exhale, and the skin during the attack acquires a pinkish tint.
Symptoms include a dry cough, which is accompanied by the release of scanty thick sputum. Due to the constant tension of the respiratory muscles, a sharp decrease in weight is observed. The shape of the chest also changes, it becomes barrel-shaped. Due to respiratory failure , oxygen starvation of tissues develops, which is accompanied by a number of signs, in particular pallor and cyanosis of the skin, thickening of the fingers, chronic fatigue.
How to treat pulmonary emphysema?
Such a disease is extremely dangerous, because prolonged hypoxia primarily causes disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system. Memory impairment, confusion, epileptic seizures are all extremely dangerous signs. That is why you should seek medical help as soon as possible. Only a specialist knows why emphysema occurs and what symptoms accompany it, what kind of disease it is and what treatment methods should be preferred.
Therapy must be comprehensive. Patients are prescribed drugs that expand the bronchi and eliminate the symptoms of the disease. Massage, breathing exercises, properly selected physical exercises, as well as mucolytic drugs will facilitate sputum discharge and improve lung ventilation. People with emphysema are more prone to infectious diseases, in such cases, doctors prescribe antibiotics and immunomodulatory drugs.