When you breathe, you inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. This delicate balance is important to your body. Patients who breathe too rapidly aren’t inhaling too much oxygen, actually too much carbon dioxide is being exhaled. Hyperventilation can lead to low levels of carbon dioxide in the blood which ilicits many symptoms. These include belching, chest pain, confusion, dizziness, muscle spasms in the hands or feet and numbness or tingling around the mouth.
Treatment for hyperventilation centers on calming the patient and slowing respirations. This will equilibrate the levels of O2 and CO2. Doing this requires a calm voice and reassuring words. Many patients don’t know why they’re feeling this way and worry they are experiencing something much more serious.
Another treatment to slow the CO2 outflow is to have the patient breathe through pursed lips, as if whistling or blowing out a candle. The patient may also choose a technique where the mouth is covered, one nostril is plugged, and breathing occurs only through the remaining nostril. A compliant patient can be asked to hold a breath while you slowly count to 10. The patient should then exhale and breathe in again. This will force slower breathing.
Hyperventilation is one condition in which extra oxygen is NOT helpful. Consult with Aircare Access before providing oxygen to a patient suffering from hyperventilation.
PNEUMOTHORAX
A collapsed lung, pneumothorax, is the collection of air in the space around the lining of the lungs. Excess air buildup puts pressure on the lung and it cannot expand normally when you take a breath.
A collapsed lung may result from chest trauma, such as gunshots or knife wounds, rib fractures or after certain medical procedures. When a collapsed lung occurs without any known cause it is called a spontaneous pneumothorax.
A small area in the lung, called a bleb, is filled with air. If this bleb ruptures, the air leaks into the space around the lung. Certain activities may lead to a collapsed lung. These include scuba diving, smoking marijuana or cigarettes, high altitude hiking and flying.
Tall, thin people are more likely to suffer a collapsed lung. Chronic lung diseases such as COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis and whooping cough also increase the risk of a collapsed lung.
SYMPTOMS
Classic symptoms of pneumothorax are sharp chest pains made worse by a deep breath or a cough, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, fatigue, rapid pulse and cyanosis. The person with a pneumothorax will have decreased or no breath sounds on the affected side. A chest x-ray is needed to determine whether there is air outside the lung.
34 Respiratory System
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