Emphysema is a disease that destroys lung tissue, causing shortness of breath, wheezing, and reduced airflow. Smoking is the main cause, but it can also be inherited. Treatment involves quitting smoking, medication, oxygen therapy, and surgery in severe cases.
Emphysema is a disease in which lung tissue is destroyed. The air sacs at the end of the airways lose their elasticity, making it difficult for carbon dioxide to be expelled from the lungs. The tissue destruction causes the smaller airways to narrow, which also reduces airflow. These changes mean that the effect of emphysema on breathing is to cause shortness of breath and wheezing, with difficulty breathing out. As the disease progresses, the loss of elasticity causes the lungs to overinflate, the chest wall to become barrel-shaped, and the diaphragm to flatten, resulting in rapid and inefficient breathing.
Because some of the air sacs are no longer functioning, the effect of emphysema on breathing means that there is less lung tissue available for the blood to absorb oxygen. Blood oxygen levels drop, causing fatigue and reducing your ability to exercise. Coughing is a common symptom of emphysema, along with phlegm production, and respiratory infections can occur, making breathing even worse. In the more advanced stages of emphysema, even simple activities can cause breathing difficulties and the disease, hitherto ignored, becomes quite disabling.
Causes of emphysema include smoking and an inherited condition known as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Alpha-1 antitrypsin is a protein that helps protect the lungs from damage, but it’s deficient in only about 1 to 2 percent of people with emphysema, and smoking is by far the main cause. Smoking and emphysema are commonly associated because the chemicals in cigarette smoke irritate lung tissue, leading to destruction of structural elastic fibers, smaller air passages, and air sacs. This loss of normal lung tissue causes the characteristic effects of emphysema on breathing.
Treating emphysema first involves giving up smoking to prevent the disease from progressing. A number of medications are available that can help counteract the effects of emphysema on breathing, including bronchodilators that widen the airways and steroids that reduce inflammation in the lungs. Where blood oxygen levels are low, an oxygen supply may be required, and if there is an infection, treatment with antibiotics will be required.
For patients with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, regular alpha-1 antitrypsin infusions may be given into a vein. Surgery is reserved for cases of emphysema in which all other treatments have failed. An operation called lung volume reduction may be performed, in which damaged areas of lung tissue are removed, reducing the size of the lung and improving some of the negative effects of emphysema on breathing. The prognosis of emphysema depends on how far the disease has progressed, but quitting smoking is the most effective way to improve your outlook.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
