Emphysema facts for kids

This picture shows a damaged lung from someone who had severe emphysema. The black "bubbles" are tiny air sacs (called alveoli) that have gotten too big and are filled with black carbon from smoking.

This is an X-ray of a person's chest with emphysema. The arrow points to a faint bubbly area in the left lung that looks a bit like a ghostly bunch of grapes. This shows where the emphysema is.

This microscope picture shows very large, expanded parts of lung tissue. Normally, these "holes" should be tiny, and there should be thousands of them. Here, they are much bigger and fewer.

Emphysema is a serious disease that affects your lungs. It's one of several conditions grouped together as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD makes it hard for air to flow in and out of your lungs. Emphysema is most often caused by smoking, but sometimes it can be caused by other diseases or have no clear reason.

This disease happens when the very small air sacs in your lungs, called alveoli, get damaged. These tiny sacs are at the ends of your airways. Instead of many small sacs, they break down and form fewer, much bigger ones. The alveoli are super important because they are where your body takes in oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide from your blood. When they are damaged by emphysema, it becomes hard to breathe out. Air gets trapped inside these broken air sacs because their walls collapse. This trapped air can make a person's chest look rounded, which is sometimes called a "barrel chest."

Understanding Emphysema

Emphysema is a long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. It's a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This means that the flow of air in and out of your lungs is partly blocked.

What Happens in Your Lungs?

Your lungs have millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. Think of them like tiny balloons at the end of your breathing tubes. When you breathe in, these balloons fill with air. When you breathe out, they get smaller. In emphysema, the walls of these tiny air sacs get damaged and break down. Instead of many small sacs, you end up with fewer, larger ones.

This damage means your lungs can't work as well. The alveoli are where oxygen from the air goes into your blood, and carbon dioxide (a waste gas) leaves your blood. When the alveoli are damaged, it's harder for your body to do this important job. It also becomes very difficult to push air out of your lungs because the damaged sacs can trap air inside.

Common Causes

The most common cause of emphysema is smoking. Breathing in tobacco smoke over many years can slowly damage the delicate air sacs in your lungs. Other things can also cause emphysema, like breathing in pollution or certain chemicals, but smoking is the main reason for most cases.

Living with Emphysema

There is currently no cure for emphysema, but there are treatments that can help manage the symptoms and make breathing easier.

Treatment Options

• Stop Smoking: If you smoke, the most important step is to stop immediately. This can slow down the damage to your lungs.
• Medicines: Doctors might prescribe medicines called "broncho-dilators." These help open up your airways, making it easier to breathe. Sometimes, other medicines like corticosteroids are also used to reduce swelling in the airways.
• Oxygen Therapy: If your oxygen levels are low, you might need extra oxygen through a mask or nasal tubes. Using oxygen for at least 15 hours a day can help your heart and make it easier to exercise. However, it's very dangerous to smoke while using oxygen because of the risk of fires.

People with emphysema might find it harder to do physical activities, but treatments can help improve their ability to exercise and enjoy life.

Emphysema and Other Conditions

Emphysema often occurs with another lung condition called chronic bronchitis. Because it can be hard to tell the difference between "pure" emphysema and chronic bronchitis, doctors often group them together under the name chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Images for kids

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  Diagram of aveoli with emphysema

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  CT scan of bullous emphysema

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  Stained lung tissue from end-stage emphysema.

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  A large bulla and a smaller bleb illustrated

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  Giovanni Battista Morgagni, who recorded one of the earliest descriptions of emphysema in 1769

See also

In Spanish: Enfisema pulmonar para niños