let's talk about COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD is an umbrella term for emphysema and chronic bronchitis COPD is characterized by chronic airflow obstruction a decreased in oxygen or O2 and and increase in carbon dioxide or CO2 there are many risk factors that could cause COPD but the main one you need to know is smoking it's so important that you know smoking is the number one risk factor for developing COPD like I said before COPD is an umbrella term for emphysema and chronic bronchitis so let's go over the pathology of both the pathology of emphysema is damaged and enlarged alveoli causing loss of lung elasticity where the pathology of chronic bronchitis is a chronic productive cough and sputum production for greater than three months throughout two consecutive years emphysema causes loss of lung tissue recoil and air trapping air trapping is really important to know here so emphysema think and trapped air where chronic bronchitis causes mucous secretion and Airway obstruction bronchitis think boogers these patients have lots and lots of mucus if you want more videos that are not on YouTube check out nurse in the making plus this includes access to our growing video library interactive worksheets that go with each video and practice questions you can get access to nursing making plus with the complete nursing school bundle click the link to the complete nursing school bundle and join thousands of other future nurses using nurse the making plus you got this future nurse let's look at the signs and symptoms of emphysema and chronic bronchitis emphysema patients are commonly referred to as pink puffers this is because they tend to hyperventilate meaning they have short fast breaths this causes redness in their chest and face which is where pink puffers comes from chronic bronchitis patients are commonly referred to as blue bloaters this is because they have mucus obstructing their airways which causes a decrease in oxygen this leads to cyanosis or bluish discoloration of the skin next is about weight emphysema patients tend to experience weight loss and will appear very thin where patients with chronic bronchitis tend to be overweight or obese emphysema patients will have a barrel chest this is from hyperinflation of the lungs from again that air trapping so emphysema think barrel chest where patients with chronic bronchitis tend to have cyanosis or bluish discoloration of the skin from hypoxemia so bronchitis think blue appearance emphysema patients will experience shortness of breath and severe dyspnea where patients with chronic bronchitis will have a chronic cough bronchi and wheezing a low oxygen saturation is expected in both emphysema and chronic bronchitis patients a normal oxygen saturation is 95 to 100 percent but in patients with COPD they can have a baseline as low as 88 percent since we're talking about oxygen saturation let's look at oxygen therapy those without COPD are stimulated to breathe due to increased CO2 but COPD patients are stimulated to breathe due to low oxygen administering oxygen to patients with COPD can cause them to lose their drive to breathe so be sure to give oxygen with Extreme Caution let's talk about preventing infection which is very important for those with COPD staying up to date on vaccines like influenza vaccine and the pneumococcal vaccine is very important these vaccines help decrease the chances of Contracting pneumonia which could compromise their respiratory system even more next let's look at some Diet modifications for both patients with emphysema and chronic bronchitis in patients with emphysema we encourage them to increase their calories this is because these patients use excessive energy to breathe this Burns a lot of calories which can lead to weight loss so we want to encourage them to increase their caloric intake but be careful because a full stomach will increase pressure on the diaphragm so we want to encourage them to eat small frequent meals rich in protein as for patients with chronic bronchitis we encourage them to increase fluids fluids help to thin mucous secretions improving airflow but again be careful because drinking too much fluids with meals can cause stomach distension which makes it very hard to breathe so we encourage these patients to drink in between meals not during next let's look at some proper breathing techniques patients with COPD can do the first one is pursed lips this promotes carbon dioxide elimination and prevents collapse of the Airways to do this you breathe in or inhale through your nose and then breathe out or exhale with pursed lips like you're going to whistle for four seconds or more the next one is a diaphragmatic breathing this uses the diaphragm rather than the accessory muscles to breathe to do this slowly breathe in or inhale and let your abdomen expand then breathe out or exhale and let your abdomen go back inward last breathing technique is Huff coughing this helps to get rid of excess mucus in the lungs and Airways especially those patients with chronic bronchitis to do this slowly inhale and hold for a few seconds then you're going to forcefully exhale after doing this a few times your secretions may have shifted and can be coughed up more easily now let's look at some medications used in COPD the first one is bronchodilators Bronco means Airway and dilator or dilate means to stretch or enlarge an opening this causes improved air flow so bronchodilators think dilate or open next is corticosteroids these decrease inflammation we are saved by the suffix because these commonly end in sewn or I'd examples would be prednisone Hydrocortisone and flunicylide and so on it's common that these patients take a bronchodilator and a corticosteroid together when using these medications together you want to use your bronchodilator first to help open the Airways then you want to wait five minutes to really allow the Airways to open then you can administer the corticosteroid after the Airways are open enough to allow it through you can remember this by the memory trick B like bronchodilators comes before c like corticosteroids in the alphabet let's look at the most commonly tested on related to COPD COPD is characterized by decreased in oxygen and an increase in carbon dioxide smoking is the number one risk factor for developing COPD emphysema is characterized by air trapping these patients should eat small frequent meals where chronic bronchitis is characterized by chronic mucus production these patients should increase their fluid intake and a low oxygen saturation is expected with COPD patients that's all for COPD