Ventilatory Support for the COPD Patient

Running head : HEALTHCARE

Ventilatory Support for the COPD Patient

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Introduction

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , otherwise referred to as COPD , is a condition that affects the airways in the lungs making them become narrowed and broken down mainly due to smoking of cigarettes (Stockley 2007 . COPD , as stated by Stockley (2007 , can also be caused by repeated lung infection during childhood and second hand-smoke . It can also be as a result of a rare genetic dis known as ?-1 antitrypsin deficiency . This

condition may at times lead to damage of air sacs . Over time , the lungs become damaged and make it very difficult to breath through the narrowed bronchial tubes . According to Currie (2006 , severe damage of the lungs also makes it difficult for proper oxygenation of blood and elimination of carbon dioxide from the body . This leads to shortness of breath and development of other symptoms . Symptoms of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are hard to eliminate with treatment and tend to become worse over time . Stockley (2007 ) clarifies that COPD is regularly used interchangeably with other terms such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema as these two are the most common forms of COPD . The current treatments of these three conditions are also similar . Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the fourth major cause of death in the United States . More than twelve million people have been diagnosed with his condition . There are various symptoms associated with this disease . These include : excessive coughs , breathlessness , excess sputum , and...