What causes open pneumothorax

Medically, there are three common types of pneumothorax, which are: open pneumothorax, spontaneous pneumothorax, and tension pneumothorax. Open pneumothorax is a very serious disease, and for this disease, the patient's condition can only be controlled by surgery. People with open pneumothorax experience symptoms such as a drop in blood pressure, difficulty breathing, chest tightness, coughing, etc. So, what causes an open pneumothorax?

Open pneumothorax is caused by the patient's impact from a car accident, a knife blade, shrapnel, a sharp weapon, etc., which penetrates the chest wall, so that the pleural cavity communicates with the outside world, so that air can freely enter and exit the pleural cavity with the patient's breathing.When people develop open pneumothorax, the negative pressure in the bilateral pleural space disappears, the lungs collapse due to compression due to air pressure, and the uneven pressure in the pleural space on both sides of the lung causes the mediastinum to shift, resulting in the expansion of the unaffected lung being limited.

At this time, the air breathed by the patient cannot sustain the patient's breathing, and the blood in the collapsed alveolar area cannot oxygenate normally, causing the patient to have difficulty breathing. The increased arterial and venous shunts in the lungs consume a large amount of oxygen stored in the body, and when the oxygen is depleted, it also causes a large amount of carbon dioxide to accumulate and cannot be excreted from the body properly.

When the patient inhales, air from the injured lung is inhaled into the healthy contralateral lung; When you exhale, there is also air in the opposite lung that enters the damaged lung as you breathe.This is the phenomenon of mediastinal fluttering, which will lead to a lack of oxygen throughout the patient's body, and will also cause carbon dioxide to accumulate in the body and cannot be discharged in time, resulting in life-threatening patients.

People with open pneumothorax should not be able to exercise vigorously after the surgery while maintaining a stable mood, otherwise the patient's condition will worsen. At the same time, in terms of diet, it is necessary to eat more foods rich in vitamins, proteins, and trace elements needed by the human body to improve the body's immunity and prevent postoperative infection.