Why do COPD patients need to expectorate? How to expectorate properly

There are many causes of COPD, including smoking, occupational dust, chemicals, and air pollution. In the early stage of COPD, symptoms such as throat discomfort and expectoration may occur. If not timely diagnosis and treatment or did not take the correct diagnosis and treatment method, the disease will continue to aggravate. Many elderly patients are prone to difficulty in expelling sputum, and the sputum is not discharged in time, resulting in retention which lead to the great harm in the lungs. There are many shed cells and tissues, germs, particles, dust, foreign bodies, etc. adhered to the sputum. It will not only promote the reproduction of microorganisms in the respiratory tract, make the symptoms spread, and block the airway in the long run, causing hypoxia and breathing difficulties in the body, thereby aggravating the disease.

Why do COPD patients have severe phlegm?

Due to the large amount and viscous sputum of COPD patients, when symptoms of trachea, bronchi and alveoli occur in the COPD patients , the respiratory mucosa is congested and edema, the secretion of mucus increases, the permeability of capillaries increases, and the serous fluid is exuded and exuded. The substance mixes with other substances to form a thick phlegm. The important thing is that because the epithelial cells of the bronchial mucosa have many columnar cilia, the cilia of COPD patients have lodging, falling off and dying to varying degrees. More and more phlegm accumulates, causing the symptoms of phlegm blockage and choking.

How to properly expel phlegm with COPD patients ?

For COPD patients, smoking is an important cause of COPD exacerbation and sputum symptoms. Smoking cessation is an important intervention to reduce sputum production. In addition to smoking cessation, it is also better to take expectorants for specific patients.

In addition to expectorants, you can also use the water method, a small amount of times. Increase indoor humidity, humidify the respiratory tract, and change the difficulty of expectoration. Or change the position and tap the chest to help the patient to expectorate.

Chronic bronchial disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which are all common respiratory diseases in our lives. These diseases can cause serious physical and mental impacts on patients. Family members should pay attention to them. Regularly take patients to regular hospitals to check lung function, improve the awareness of disease protection, and prevent further aggravation of the disease!

COPD is a common and frequently-occurring disease in the respiratory system of the elderly. Especially in winter, when the climate changes drastically and the temperature drops sharply, it is easy to recur because of upper respiratory tract infections, which brings a lot of inconvenience to the life of the elderly. Therefore, once diagnosed with COPD, it is necessary to seek medical attention in time and adopt professional and standardized diagnosis and treatment methods. COPD patients insist on daily home oxygen therapy, mainly 5-liter oxygen concentrators, and need to configure oxygen concentration detection and temperature detection.

Home Oxygen Therapy: How many liters Oxygen Concentrator does the COPD Patients need?

Home oxygen therapy requires 3-10 liter of oxygen concentrators (depending on the condition). According to the relationship between inspired oxygen concentration and flow. Only 41% oxygen is inhaled by a 5 liter oxygen concentrator into the patient's body, which is the ideal value. In fact, the oxygen inhaled by the 5 liter machine for COPD patients is more than 30%. Using oxygen with a low oxygen concentration of about 30% refers to a 5 liter oxygen concentrator. No matter whether the patient uses 3 liters, 5 liters or 10 liters, it depends on the patient's blood oxygen saturation above 90% (usually 94% is OK) as the target. For example, COPD patients use a 5 liter machine, if the blood oxygen saturation is below 90%, they should use a large-flow oxygen concentrator of more than 5 liter. Oxygen therapy time: as little as 7-8 hours a day, more than ten hours, and more than 20 hours in very serious cases.