Pneumonia - Pathophysiology Of Pneumonia

The invading organism causes symptoms, in part, by provoking an overly exuberant immune response in the lungs. The small blood vessels in the lungs (capillaries) become leaky, and protein-rich fluid seeps into the alveoli. This results in a less functional area for oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange. The patient becomes relatively oxygen deprived, while retaining potentially damaging carbon dioxide. The patient breathes faster and faster, in an effort to bring in more oxygen and blow off more carbon dioxide.

Mucus production is increased, and the leaky capillaries may tinge the mucus with blood. Mucus plugs actually further decrease the efficiency of gas exchange in the lung. The alveoli fill further with fluid and debris from the large number of white blood cells being produced to fight the infection.

Consolidation, a feature of bacterial pneumonias, occurs when the alveoli, which are normally hollow air spaces within the lung, instead become solid, due to quantities of fluid and debris.

Viral pneumonias, and mycoplasma pneumonias, do not result in consolidation. These types of pneumonia primarily infect the walls of the alveoli and the parenchyma of the lung.

Citing this material

Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.

Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.

User Comments Add a comment…

about 1 year ago

xYrel jEan » xyreljean dot velila ((at)) yahoo dot com

tNx a lot for this info...

over 1 year ago

ricky » r3kie ((at)) yahoo dot com

tnks!! i was able to have a clear rationale for my ncp because of this.

tnk u very much!!!

over 1 year ago

cathy » fedrecia ((at)) hotmail dot com

invaluable thanks

over 1 year ago

CYTH » staze_cyth ((at)) yahoo dot com

thank you for these infos.. it reli helps me..easy to understand and it gives guide to me when i did my schematic diagram in pathophysiology of pneumonia..

thank you very much...

Godbless..=>

over 1 year ago

caien » caienplanas ((at)) yahoo dot com

great ..... i was able to tace it , tnks a lot

over 1 year ago

cris » cristall22 ((at)) yahoo dot com

OMG thank YOU!

over 1 year ago

joni » nuj_17 ((at)) yahoo dot com

great!

over 1 year ago

culbert lee silva » culbertz23 ((at)) yahoo dot com

thanks it so very helpful to my study...

over 1 year ago

andrew » rbugnosen ((at)) comcast dot net

very easy to understand!!!

over 1 year ago

cindy heatley » cindyheat ((at)) yahoo dot com

thank you this very useful for revision

over 1 year ago

elaine » elainebatobato ((at)) yahoo dot com

thank u it really help me alot

over 1 year ago

giovanni » jovanieberang ((at)) hotmail dot com

thanks a lot. a lot of help for me...

over 1 year ago

shai » shai_ads23 ((at)) yahoo dot com

thanks...

it helped me.

almost 2 years ago

daryl » datubigon ((at)) yahoo dot com

thank you very much for the info