Obstructive Airway Disorders Nursing Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

Diagnosis of Emphysema
Name
Institution
Diagnosis of Emphysema
1 What assessment questions should you ask a patient with emphysema symptoms?
A person’s medical history will give the necessary information when accessing him or her. When doing this, a medical practitioner should ask the following questions;
1 When was the first time you experienced difficulty in breathing?
2 How occasionally do you become short of breath? Is it becoming worse?
3 How far can you walk or climb stairs before starting to experience dyspnea?
4 How regularly do you cough?
5 For how long have you been coughing and is it getting worse?
6 Have you ever coughed blood?
7 How many cigarettes do you smoke per day?
8 Do you feel like you can quit smoking?
2 Reasons for accessing a patient for swollen ankles and distended neck veins when he is upright?
It is imperative to access for swollen ankles, as it is a key indication or rather a symptom of emphysema. Besides, there is need to access distended neck veins to ascertain whether blood is backing up into the veins (Sharafkhaneh, Hanania, & Kim, 2008). This is necessary as it may bring about heart problems such as cor pulmonale.
3 How does smoking contribute to the development of emphysema?
Conferring with the world health organization, smoking is the primary cause of COPD. Just like how we breathe, tobacco smoke travels through the windpipe and eventually into the bronchus tubes. This lethal smoke then moves to the bronchioles, which contains millions of air sacs called the alveoli which contains capillaries. When one inhales oxygen, it moves through the alveoli and into the capillaries, and thus oxygen is distributed into the body (Arunachalam et al., 2010). Concurrently, carbon dioxide moves from the capillaries into the air sacs so that it can be exhaled out of the body. The flexibility of air sacs enables breathing to occur smoothly. However, people who are actively exposed to smoking end up damaging their lungs. This continuous smoking affects the functionality of the lungs (Arunachalam et al., 2010). This occurs when pollutants are inhaled directly over a long period of time leading to irritation of the lungs, thus triggering the onset of COPD.
4 Response to a ‘round chest’ of a patient
Barrel/round chest refers to bulging of the chest thus taking a round shape in nature. Round chest occurs when the lungs are occasionally overinflated by air, this makes the rib cage to stay partly stretched at all times (Arunachalam et al., 2010). This, therefore, makes breathing to be less effective indicating that the condition is becoming deficient.
5 What are the abnormal pulmonary function study results you would expect in a patient with emphysema?
There would be the presence of an obstruction. In almost all the cases of an obstruction, there will be reduced expiratory flow.
A secluded gas exchange defect will also be present.
6 Explain how the chemical stimulus to take a breath changes in a patient with
longstanding emphysema.
In COPD, the air passage makes it hard to empty air from the lungs. In essence, the air that remains keeps the lungs bloated even after an exhalation. This makes it hard for a patient to take in the next set of air. As a result, the complete air volume in the lungs rises while the amount of air usually breathed decreases.
7 Explain the genetic basis for emphysema and the contribution to the overall incidence of emphysema in the general population.
Just like many chronic diseases, it has become challenging to disentangle pathogenic setups and genetic disposition for COPD. This is due to the heterogeneous nature of the disease. The main genetic schemes include family, exclusion studies and twin. Earlier epidemiological studies discovered that COPD combines in families by presenting strong relationships between parents, and children than with their partners (Sharafkhaneh, Hanania, & Kim, 2008).
8 Wha...