Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

CO-Morbidities in COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to a collection of lung diseases that can lead to blocked airways. People with COPD can be at risk for some serious complications that can not only put their health in jeopardy, but can also fatal. In COPD patients, Pneumonia occurs when bacteria enter the lungs, creating an infection. For COPD patients, pneumonia can weaken the lungs. This can lead to a chain reaction of illnesses that can weaken the lungs even further. This downward spiral can lead to a rapid deterioration of health in COPD patients. Respiratory Insufficiency is an important complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This may represent deterioration in the patient's premorbid condition such that hypoxemia worsens and hypercapnia develops during a relatively trivial respiratory tract infection, which may be viral or bacterial, Alternatively, these changes may occur for the first time in someone with less severe COPD who encounters a particularly dramatic cause for deterioration, e.g. lobar pneumonia or acute pulmonary oedema. Pneumothorax is defined as the accumulation of air or gas in the space between the lung and the chest wall. Also known as a collapsed lung, pneumothorax occurs when a hole develops in the lung that allows air to escape in the space around the lung, causing the lungs to partially or completely collapse. People with COPD, are at greater risk for pneumothorax because the structure of their lungs is weak and vulnerable to the spontaneous development of these types of holes. Pneumo mediastinum must be differentiated from spontaneous pneumothorax. Patients may or may not have symptoms, as this is typically a well-tolerated disease, although mortality in cases of esophageal rupture is very high.