Pulmonary edema facts for kids

Human lungs diagram

Pulmonary edema (say "PULL-muh-nair-ee ih-DEE-muh") is when there's too much fluid in your lungs. The word "pulmonary" means "related to the lungs," and "edema" means "swelling" or "fluid buildup."

Normally, when you breathe in, your lungs fill up with air. Tiny air sacs in your lungs, called alveoli, help oxygen move from the air into your blood. Your blood then carries this oxygen to every part of your body. All your body parts need oxygen to work and stay alive.

But when you have fluid in your lungs, there isn't enough space for air to get in. This means you can't breathe in as much air. As a result, less oxygen gets into your blood, and your body doesn't get the oxygen it needs. This can make it very hard to breathe.

What Causes Fluid in Lungs?

The most common reason for fluid in the lungs is a problem with the left side of your heart. The left side of your heart is like a strong pump that sends blood to your whole body. If it becomes too weak to pump blood well, blood can start to back up into your lungs. This is called cardiogenic pulmonary edema, which simply means "heart-caused fluid in the lungs."

Other things can also cause fluid in the lungs, even if your heart is working fine. These are called non-cardiogenic causes:

• Too much fluid: This can happen if someone with kidney failure eats too much salt or drinks too much liquid. Their kidneys can't clean out the extra fluid like they should, so the fluid builds up, sometimes in the lungs.
• Breathing in smoke: If you breathe in a lot of smoke, it can damage your lungs and cause fluid to build up.
• Drowning: If someone almost drowns, especially in salt water, fluid can get into their lungs.
• High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE): This happens to some people when they go to very high places, like climbing tall mountains.
• Very low body temperature: Being too cold for too long, a condition called Hypothermia, can sometimes lead to fluid in the lungs.
• Lung illness or injury: Conditions like severe pneumonia (a lung infection) or a serious body infection (called sepsis) can cause a problem known as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, which fills the lungs with fluid.
• Blood clots: A Pulmonary embolism happens when a blood clot travels from another part of the body and gets stuck in the lungs.
• Chest or lung injury: A direct injury to your chest or lungs can cause fluid to collect.
• Infections: Some viruses, like the one that causes dengue fever, can lead to fluid in the lungs.
• Bad reactions to medicines: Sometimes, certain drugs can cause an unexpected reaction that results in pulmonary edema.

Signs and Symptoms

If someone has fluid in their lungs, they might show these signs:

• Difficulty breathing: This is the main symptom. It might feel like you can't get enough air.
• Hard to breathe when lying down: This is called orthopnea. People often need to sit up to breathe more easily.
• Waking up at night gasping for air: This is known as paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. It means breathing trouble can wake you up from sleep.
• Pink, foamy spit: You might cough up frothy, pink-colored sputum (spit).
• Crackling sounds in lungs: When a doctor listens to your breath sounds with a stethoscope, they might hear crackling noises, like rice crispies, which are called rales.

Flash Pulmonary Edema

Flash pulmonary edema is a very serious medical emergency. It means fluid builds up in the lungs extremely fast. Usually, pulmonary edema takes a few hours to get worse. But with flash pulmonary edema, a person's lungs can fill completely with fluid in just a few minutes. This can also happen if someone with pulmonary edema is moved or lies down suddenly.

How Doctors Treat Fluid in Lungs

No matter what caused the fluid in the lungs, doctors can treat it in several ways:

• Giving oxygen: Patients are often given extra oxygen to help them breathe.
• Sitting up: Helping the person sit straight up can make it easier for them to breathe.
• Helping with breathing: If needed, doctors might use a machine to help force air into the person's lungs. This is called ventilation.
• Medicines to remove fluid: Doctors can give Diuretic medicines, which help the body get rid of extra fluid by making you pee more.
• Medicines to reduce pressure: Medicines like nitroglycerine ("nitro") can help lower the pressure that pushes fluid into the lungs. They can also make blood vessels in the lungs wider, so more fluid can fit into them, leaving more space for air.

Sometimes, doctors also treat the specific cause of the pulmonary edema. For example, if someone with kidney problems has too much salt or fluid, they might get dialysis. This is a special treatment that helps remove extra fluid and salt from their body.

Images for kids

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  X-Ray showing pulmonary edema

See also

In Spanish: Edema pulmonar para niños