What is pleural effusion?
A pleural effusion is an accumulation of fluid around the lung. Some people call this pathological process fluid in the lungs.
Physiologically, in a normal state, all people have a small amount of fluid in the pleural area. This fluid (in an adequate dose) is necessary for the lung to be able to move freely during breathing. However, the diagnosis of pleural effusion means that the fluid has accumulated in excess, which in itself gives a negative result.
The reason may be that the body produces a large amount of fluid or is unable to absorb the produced fluid.
The following symptoms are characteristic of pleural effusion:
- Chest pain;
- Shortness of breath;
- The patient has difficulty breathing.
Some people have no symptoms, and in such clinical cases, the disease is diagnosed completely by chance, for example, during a chest X-ray study performed for another reason.
The most common causes are:
- Heart failure;
- Cirrhosis;
- Nephrotic syndrome;
- Lung inflammation;
- Lung cancer, breast cancer or lymphoma;
- Kidney disease;
- Inflammatory disease;
- Open heart surgery.
Less common causes are:
- Tuberculosis;
- Autoimmune disease;
- Bleeding in chest injury;
- Chylothorax;
- Chest or abdominal cavity infections;
- Pancreatitis;
- Radiation therapy (radiotherapy);
- Esophagus rupture;
- The patient has contact with asbestos and others.
Examples of complicated clinical cases of pleural effusion are:
- Lung damage;
- Appearance of scars around the lung;
- Abscess.
Source:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17373-pleural-effusion
