Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
“COPD affects 24 million Americans and reaches people in all the 50 states” (COPD statistics across America). What exactly is this disease that is affecting so many people across the United States? It’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. COPD is described almost exactly as it sounds. It is a chronic disease that obstructs breathing, making it difficult to breathe. According to Mayo clinic staff, it is defined as a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs. This disease can be very debilitating. It is the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States (what is COPD?, 2013). Many people can live with this disease and not even realize that they have it, because there are a couple different components to this disease. COPD is due to two common conditions, it has many signs and symptoms, along with a couple treatment or maintenance medications, and also some precursors and complications.
COPD is composed of two main conditions. These include chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Both of these conditions can be caused by a long term irritant from the environment, or just a genetic disposition to COPD. This irritant can be cigarette smoke, secondhand smoke, environmental pollutants, or dust (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). It can cause severe damage to structures associated with the respiratory system, causing the difficulty breathing and the other symptoms associated with COPD. “Chronic bronchitis is inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, which carry air to and from the air sacs (alveoli) of the lungs. It is characterized by daily cough and sputum production. Emphysema is a condition in which the air sacs (alveoli) at the end of the smallest air...
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...ecursor to this disease is smoking. This includes cigarettes, cigars, or marijuana. “Some studies show that up to half of long-term smokers older than age 60 get COPD (Thompson, E., Yoneda, K., 2014).” One of the best ways to avoid getting COPD is to stop smoking. Another precursor is long-term exposure to environmental irritants or pollutants. These can include dust, chemicals, secondhand smoke, and general air pollutants. The last common precursor is genetic, which is the alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. This deficiency alone can cause COPD.
COPD affects millions of people. It has many signs and symptoms, some options for treatments, and also precursors that one would need to look for. Although this disease affects a lot of people, with the right treatments or maintenance, one can live with it for many years and still achieve a good quality and quantity of life.
The presented case is of a patient named R.S. who has a smoking history of many years, which can be directly tied to his development of chronic bronchitis, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) specified as Type B. It is estimated that in 90% of chronic bronchitis or “blue bloaters”, cigarette smoking is the major cause. Chronic bronchitis involves persistent and irreversible airway obstruction, due to the constant inflammation of the bronchial mucosa, leading to hypertrophy and hyperplasia of bronchial glands. The latter exposes the individual to higher risks of bacterial infections; often colonization of organisms such as Streptococcus or Staphyloccocus pneumoniae can be exhibited. This is due to the lost or impaired function of mucociliary clearance action which results from the replacement of certain sections of ciliated columnar epithelium by squamous cells in the bronchi. (Copstead &Banasik, 546-547)
R.S. has chronic bronchitis. According to the UC San Francisco Medical Center “Chronic bronchitis is a common type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in which the air passages in the lungs — the bronchi — are repeatedly inflamed, leading to scarring of the bronchi walls. As a result, excessive amounts of sticky mucus are produced and fill the bronchial tubes, which become thickened, impeding normal airflow through the lungs.” (Chronic Bronchitis 2015) There are many things that can be observed as clinical findings. R.S. will have a chronic cough that has lasted from 3 months to two years or more, and a lot of sputum. The sputum is due to
Mrs. Jones has a history of COPD. She was already taking albuterol for her illness and it was ineffective when she took it that day. Mrs. Jones had been a smoker but had quit several years ago. According to Chojnowski (2003), smoking is a major causative factor in the development of COPD. Mrs. Jones's primary provider stated that she had a mixed type of COPD. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) was established to address the growing problem of COPD. The GOLD standards identify three conditions that contribute to the structural changes found in COPD: Chronic bronchiolitis, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. A mixed diagnosis means that the patient has a combination of these conditions (D., Chojnowski, 2003). Mrs. Jones chronically displayed the characteristic symptoms of COPD. "The characteristic symptoms are cough, sputum production, dyspnea on exertion, and decreased exercise tolerance." (D., Chojnowski, 2003, p. 27).
My PICOT question was developed after reading the case study about a patient named Vincent Brody who had for the last 50 years of his life consumed 40 cigarettes a day and despite his diagnosis of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a recent episode of exacerbation of his condition that required him to be admitted to hospital he was continuing to smoke.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung disease that affects millions of United States citizens. It is the third leading cause of death because there is no cure for the disease. The best way to fight COPD is to make sure that people that have high risk factors, such as smoking and AATD get tested immediately to slow down the process of the disease.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a group of progressive lung diseases that block airflow and make it hard to breathe. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the most common types of COPD (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016, p 557). Primary symptoms include coughing, mucus, chest pain, shortness of breath, and wheezing (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016, p.557). COPD develops slowly and worsens over time if not treated during early stages. The disease has no cure, but medication and disease management can slow its progress and make one feel better (NIH, 2013)
The purpose of this essay is to explore nursing care priorities for a patient with a common health condition. A common health condition is a disease or condition which occurs most often within a population. The author has chosen scenario 3 for this essay and will describe the nursing assessment and care planning provided to a patient with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The WHO definition of COPD is a lung disease which has a chronic obstruction of the airways that impedes normal breathing and is not fully reversible (). According to), there are estimated to be over 3 million people in the UK with COPD. It is common in later life and there are approximately 25,000 deaths each year, with 15% of COPD being work related (The identity of the patient will remain anonymous in adherence with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Code of Conduct on patient confidentiality (). However, the patient will be referred to as Mr B in this essay. The author has chosen the priority of eating and drinking for Mr B. Patients with COPD are at increased risk of malnutrition and nurses must make certain they screen patients and offer advice or refer as necessary (). If this priority is managed well it will have a positive effect on the other priorities (, 2012). In accordance with NICE Guideline 101 (), the treatment and care provided should consider each persons’ individual requirements and preference. Care and treatment should take into account people’s individual needs and choices. To allow people to reach informed decisions there must be good communication, supported by evidence-based practice (). This essay will provide an evidence based discussion on how care will be implemented in relation to Mr B and his eating and drin...
Carone M, D. C. ( 2007). Clinical Challenges In COPD[e-book]. (Oxford: Clinical Pub) Retrieved March 24, 2014, from (EBSCOhost).
The trial consist of patient who were 35 years old or older with clinical diagnosis of mild to moderate COPD (confirmed FEV1/FVC LESS 70% and FEV1 % predicted normal value greater or equal to 50% and willingly to stop smoking. Participants has higher percentage of male and Caucasians populations, smoked for an average of 40 years also smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day over the past year. Participants treated with systematic steroids or hospitalized for COPD exacerbation during the 4 week period were excluded. Aslo excluded are participants with uncontrolled medical
One of the long-term breathlessness is usually caused by obesity or being unfit. Other is asthma that is not controlled properly. Moreover, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is not temporarily damage to the lungs usually caused by prolonged of smoking.
This manifestation begins slowly and there may be no signs or symptoms for many years without noticing. It eventually causes shortness of breath during rest. The cause of emphysema is long term exposure to airborne irritants such as smoking, marijuana smoke, air pollution and manufacturing fumes. Seldom, emphysema is caused by an inherited deficiency of a protein that protects the elastic structures in the lungs. When this occurs, it is called alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency emphysema. Individuals that have emphysema are more probable to develop a pneumothorax (collapsed lung), heart problems (cor pulmonale), and giant bullae (holes in the
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung disease that includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma and bronchiectasis. COPD is a known to increase breathlessness, frequent coughing, wheezing, and tightness in the chest. Many patients are unaware of their symptoms and spend years not knowing that they are COPD patients. In the begging COPD may cause no symptoms or only mild symptoms, but as the years pass and the disease gets worse symptoms are usually more severe. One common test to test for COPD is the spirometry test. COPD is so common it affects almost 30 million people in the U.S. COPD can be developed from inhaling pollutants, which includes smoking and second-hand smoke. Fumes, chemicals, and dust are also some reasons people develop COPD. Genetics is also one of the big reasons many patients develop COPD. COPD mostly affects people at the age of 40 and older who are mostly smokers. There is no cure for COPD, only treatments to relieve symptoms and to keep the disease from getting worse. One example of a COPD patient, is Mrs. S who is a 65 years old man with COPD, but Mr. S has never been treated for COPD. Meaning
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is preventable disease that has a detrimental effects on both the airway and lung parenchyma (Nazir & Erbland, 2009). COPD categorises emphysema and chronic bronchitis, both of which are characterised by a reduced maximum expiratory flow and slow but forced emptying of the lungs (Jeffery 1998). The disease has the one of the highest number of fatalities in the developed world due to the ever increasing amount of tobacco smokers and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality (Marx, Hockberger & Walls, 2014). Signs and symptoms that indicate the presence of the disease include a productive cough, wheezing, dyspnoea and predisposing risk factors (Edelman et al., 1992). The diagnosis of COPD is predominantly based on the results of a lung function assessment (Larsson, 2007). Chronic bronchitis is differentiated from emphysema by it's presentation of a productive cough present for a minimum of three months in two consecutive years that cannot be attributed to other pulmonary or cardiac causes (Marx, Hockberger & Walls, 2014) (Viegi et al., 2007). Whereas emphysema is defined pathologically as as the irreversible destruction without obvious fibrosis of the lung alveoli (Marx, Hockberger & Walls, 2014) (Veigi et al., 2007).It is common for emphysema and chronic bronchitis to be diagnosed concurrently owing to the similarities between the diseases (Marx, Hockberger & Walls, 2014).
Parker, Steve. "Chronic Pulmonary Diseases." The Human Body Book. New ed. New York: DK Pub., 2007.
Vijayan, V. K. (2013). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Indian Journal Of Medical Research, 137(2), 251-269.