While Mr. B is recovering, you check on your other patients. Mrs. H, a 57-year-o
ID: 223462 • Letter: W
Question
While Mr. B is recovering, you check on your other patients. Mrs. H, a 57-year-old first-day post-cholecystectomy patient, is also showing signs of rapid breathing, Increased heart rate, and decreased pulse oximeter readings. You ask if she has been using her incentive spirometer to make sure she breathes deeply, and she says, "It hurts my belly incision. There wasn't anything wrong with my lungs anyway." "There will be if you don't use it! You really need to do that at least once an hour. It's to keep your alveoli from collapsing." "Why would they collapse? The doctors didn't do anything to them, unless that anesthesia gas was toxic." Choose the three best explanations for why Mrs. H's alveoli might collapse if she does not do her deep breathing with the Incentive spirometer. The alveoli are lined with water, and attraction between the water molecules pulls them together. This surface tension will pull the alveoli closed if she does not open them with deep breathing. When she is lying down, it is harder for her to expand her chest cavity anyway. She needs to put extra effort into it. The anesthesia was toxic to her lung cells, and she needs to clear it out of her alveoli as fast as she can. Surgery stimulated her sympathetic system, which has constricted her bronchioles and could lead to an asthma attack. Shallow breathing that does not fill her lungs will only move air into the alveoli in the upper part of her lungs, letting those in the lower part stay closed. With her gall bladder removed, she cannot produce the soapy substance that lines alveoli and makes them easier to inflate.Explanation / Answer
Answer) These are the three best explanations;
1) The alveoli are lined with water, and attraction between the water molecules pulls them together. This surface tension will pull the alveoli closed if she does not open them with deep breathing.
2) When she is lying down, it is harder for her to expand her chest cavity anyway. She needs to put extra effort into it.
5) Shallow breathing that does not fill her lungs will only move air into the alveoli in the upper part of her lungs, letting those in the lower part stay closed.
Explanation - Alveoli inside the lungs are the end part of the respiratory tract, these regions are lined with water, water molecules have an attraction between their molecules which pulls the surface region of alveoli together. it creates a surface tension. it requires a large force in terms of deep breathe to avoid the alveoli getting collapsed. shallow breathing and breathing in lying down posture reduces the force during inhalation. this increases the risk of alveoli collapse in such patients which have undergone some open belly surgery. because such patients feel it hard to take deep breaths and incentive spirometer becomes mandatory in this case.
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