[Medical Q&A] Is pulmonary edema really serious?

Planner: Chinese Medical Association

Reviewer: Zhou Xin, Chief Physician, First People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

The name of the disease, pulmonary edema, sounds like it means the amount of water in the lungs has increased, but in fact, pulmonary edema is a relatively serious pathological condition that requires timely treatment.

Pulmonary edema is a disorder in the exchange function between the blood vessels and interstitial fluid in the lungs, which leads to excessive accumulation of fluid in the alveoli and lung tissues, thus affecting the normal exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Due to problems with gas exchange, the oxygen content in the blood will decrease, hypoxemia will occur, and the functions of organs throughout the body will also be affected. Pulmonary edema is mainly manifested as dyspnea, orthopnea, cyanosis, sweating, paroxysmal cough with a large amount of white or pink foamy sputum, etc. At this time, the chest X-ray can show flake butterfly-shaped blurred shadows in both lungs. Late-stage patients may experience acute respiratory failure. At this time, the patient cannot breathe independently and needs mechanical ventilation to support. Of course, there are many causes of pulmonary edema, mainly including cardiogenic causes (such as heart failure, blood reflux is blocked, causing fluid to penetrate into the lungs) and non-cardiogenic causes (such as severe lung infection, renal insufficiency, poisoning, etc.). This serious pathological state will affect respiratory function, cause many complications, and has a high potential risk of death. It must be treated in time.