Bacterial Pneumonia

Bacterial pneumonia can have some very serious complications of health. Especially it concerns those people who belong to high-risk groups. There are known three main bacterial pneumonia complications: lung inflammation, fluid build-up and blood infections.

Lung inflammation is also known as Pleurisy. When lung inflammation is severe it prevents oxygen exchange between lungs and blood. There are wet and dry lung inflammations. It is very painful when lung lining inflammation occurs as an infection or damaging body and irritates the pleura or the lining of lungs. Therefore, the main symptom of lung inflammation is a very sharp pain in chest. The oxygen exchange is not sufficient.

The most common case is wet lung inflammation. In this situation excess fluid can become the reason of difficult breathing. Excess fluid arises if a person has parasites, bacteria or viruses and accumulates within spaces of the lung lining.  When organism detects foreign bodies the immune response starts and leads to inflammation. In this case pleurisy puts big pressure upon the lungs. That’s why wet lung inflammation causes more complications than the dry one. A person can have respiratory distress and one of lungs may even explode.

Dry lung inflammation is not accompanied by fluid accumulation. In this case two layers of pleura rub together and a person feels very strong pain. The first layer is called an inner layer that surrounds lungs and the second one is known as an outer layer that lines the chest cavity. The main symptoms of dry pleurisy are a difficult and short breathing with strong pain in a chest, cough and tenderness in the area of the chest.

On the whole, lung inflammation may be the result of taking drugs. It can also become the cause of various infections, cancers, lung embolism and collagen vascular diseases. Lung tissue can die because of the lack of oxygen as a result of poor blood supply.

The next complication of bacterial pneumonia is fluid build-up. Bacterial infections can cause the extra build-up of fluid between lungs and the pleurae that must be drained with the help of a special tube inserted between ribs. Normally the organism produces some fluid to help lungs fight against respiratory infections. According to some researches made on mice the fluid build-up inside the lungs can help kill a sick person who is infected with flu. Therefore, it is not only a virus that aggravates the health of a person.

Not so long ago a new therapy was proposed that aimed at regulating the amount of fluid that was created in infected lungs. The experiment was made on mice. Rodents were infected with a high dose of influenza A virus. Scientists observed that there was a high level of fluid in rodents’ lungs. Two days passed and the clearance of fluid in infected mice was only half effective. There was not a huge difference between uninfected mice.

The third important complication of bacterial pneumonia is blood infections or in other words sepsis. It is very dangerous when a bacterium causes pneumonia infects blood. Such condition is called bacteremia. It can contaminate other organs and lead to fatal consequences.  When a severe infection entered the bloodstream a person will have a low blood pressure. The emergency must be called immediately. Young and elderly people are in a risk group.

Tags: Bacterial Pneumonia, blood infections, chest cough, collagen vascular diseases, excess fluid, fluid accumulation, lack of oxygen, lung inflammation, poor blood supply, sharp pain in chest, taking drugs