Pleurisy (pus in the lungs) is the most dangerous and common disease. In 15% of cases, after this disease, complications appear. In practice, pathology as an independent and separate disease can be encountered quite rarely. Most often, it occurs as a result of the transfer of severe complications. At the first suspicion of the appearance of this symptom, you should immediately seek qualified medical help at the clinic.
Etiology of disease
It is necessary to understand what this disease is and as a result of which it appears. Pleurisy is an inflammatory process that forms on the membranes surrounding the lung. The disease itself develops very individually. Infectious processes, accompanied by the formation of pus in the lungs, are diverse in their etiology.
If the inflammation is exudative in nature, then a certain amount of fluid accumulates between the pleural lobes. In medicine, this disease is called pleural empyema. If there is no liquid, then fibrin (protein) begins to deposit on the surface. In some cases, the accumulation of pus is observed between the petal cavities of the organ. There are other pathologies that are characterized by the presence of infectious formations. First of all, it is gangrene or lung abscess, which have one common name - acute pulmonary suppuration. They are quite severe and can lead to dangerous consequences, for example, the collapse of lung tissue, and this is already dangerous for human life. Most often, such a disease awakens due to Staphylococcus aureus, but other microorganisms and enterobacteria can also act as a pathogen.
Causes of pus
The causes of pus in the lungs, as well as the consequences, are different:
- if pathogenic foreign bodies have entered the human body;
- inflammation of the lungs, which was obtained as a result of the formation of anaerobes or staphylococcus aureus;
- tiny organisms that came to a person by hematogenous route or as a result of prostatitis, as well as the presence of a boil on the upper lip.
Causes of gangrene on the lungs
The causative agent of gangrene is a putrefactive infection that enters the body through the bronchogenic route. What are the reasons for developinggangrene:
- in case of acute pneumonia;
- for bronchiectasis;
- if there is a tumor;
- presence of foreign bodies in the bronchi;
- wounds on lung.
Initially, the disease appears as necrosis of the lung parenchyma. In the future, it depends on what type of microbial flora was introduced whether the detachment of the necrotic part occurs, or whether pus melts and severe suppuration of the lung develops.
How to determine if there are purulent formations on the lung?
The main signs of such a disease are: severe pain, a feeling of heaviness, discomfort in the side, heavy breathing. The patient develops a cough and shortness of breath, the body temperature is above normal, the patient does not leave the feeling of weakness. When the pus becomes more and more, the pain slowly subsides. If there is a cough, it is usually dry. With a relapse of this disease, which has developed as a result of a complication of inflammation, abundant dirty sputum appears along with pus. It happens that the cough becomes simply unbearable, and even comes to attacks, especially at night. Body temperature can rise above 39 degrees, which is very life-threatening. It can hold without falling, or rise after a while. In addition, the human heart rate also increases. This happens due to the fact that the pus is intoxicated and at the same time the heart moves to the side.
Consequences of pus in the lungs
If a person is not provided with qualified assistance in time, pus can also go to the pleural cavity. Along with this, air also accumulates in it. As a result, the patient begins shortness of breath and acute pain. When the disease passes from an advanced stage, scars begin to form on the lung and bronchiectasis develops. Inflammations begin to recur regularly and periodically become seriously aggravated.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis begins with a visual examination, the chest is auscultated and tapped, anamnesis is collected, however, it will not work to make a true diagnosis only on the basis of the patient's claims. For clarification, laboratory and instrumental studies are needed. As a rule, computed tomography, x-rays and ultrasound examination of the chest organs are prescribed to diagnose the disease. It is often required to take the fluid of the pleural area for a test in order to qualify its nature. For all this, a puncture is performed under general anesthesia. If there is an assumption that the disease has arisen due to a tumor of the pleura, a biopsy is performed - a small part is separated from it with a special probe, which is then sent for a test. The biopsy is also performed under local anesthesia. The main difficulties in identifying such a disease are that its symptoms are quite skillfully disguised as another disease. The situation is aggravated even if the patient is not able to establish regular monitoring. Another disadvantage is that the disease is almost impossible to detect in the initial stages.
To diagnose the disease, the doctor needs to do a lotthe number of activities, subsequently combining all the results.
Required Methods
The mandatory methods of examining a patient include:
- attentive conversation about complaints, listening to the patient about any illness and finding out the necessary questions;
- visual inspection;
- laboratory research;
- need to prescribe the necessary additional examinations;
- use bacteriological methods for studying sputum and fluid obtained during puncture;
- take a chest x-ray;
- do an ultrasound;
- perform computed tomography;
- if necessary, also do a thoracoscopy of the lungs.
Changes in the patient's appearance
Be sure to pay attention to the color of the patient's skin, the degree of pallor and the condition of the lips. On examination, the doctor determines whether the patient has breathing restrictions in that part of the chest that is affected by the disease. Be sure to do tapping on the easy. All these methods will help the doctor to understand with almost accuracy how much the disease has affected the patient, and what the nature of the pathology is. If percussion is performed, then in those places where there are purulent accumulations, the sound will be most muffled. In cases where auscultation is performed with a large volume of plavrite, breathing in the lower part of the patient's lungs may be completely absent.
Treatment
The disease can be cured through surgical interventions. It is required only in severe cases. Base of drugtreatment of pus in the lungs in a child is based on bactericidal agents. At the beginning, drugs with a wide range of effectiveness are prescribed, and subsequently, according to the results of the tests, substances of "point action" are chosen. In parallel with antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and anesthetic substances should be prescribed.
If pleurisy is considered a consequence of a tumor process, glucocorticoid hormones and substances that slow down the growth of the neoplasm are injected inside. At times, diuretics, cough medicines, and pharmaceuticals are also prescribed to help normal vascular function. Drug therapy is diluted with physiotherapy, in particular, these are all kinds of warming up. However, limited treatment does not always bring positive results.
When water accumulates in large quantities, it has a negative effect on other organs. Sometimes the operation has to be carried out more than once, because during its implementation it is possible to pump out no more than one liter of water. Otherwise, there is a risk of damage to internal organs.
How to remove pus from the lungs by other methods? Often, the patient needs to periodically drain, and the frequent repetition of such an operation is dangerous. In this case, it is advisable to take the device of the pleural port system, which eliminates the need for repeated operations. A special port is built into the patient under the skin, combined with a drainage tube, which is inserted into the pleural cavity. If a pleural effusion occurs, you can onlypierce the port membrane and remove fluid.
Another advantage of the pleural port is the ability to carry out chemotherapy by injecting substances into the affected area directly through this device. This setting allows you to administer drugs for a long period of time. Now the interpleural port system is one of the popular non-hazardous ways to get rid of pleural fluid stagnation.
