How serious is pleural effusion?

Any reason may lead to pleural effusion. The most common reasons are subphrenic inflammation, tuberculosis, and pleurisy. Secondly, various lung infections can also easily lead to the occurrence of this disease. It is more common in young people, but middle-aged and elderly people should also be vigilant, because pleural effusion can be life-threatening if it develops into a malignant disease. At this time, some people may ask: How serious is pleural effusion? Let’s take a look together.

Pleural effusion is a medical term, and is called pleural effusion. Clinical symptoms include: dyspnea, chest pain, and cough. It is common in tuberculosis, tumors, heart failure, liver abscess, rheumatism, etc. Chest X-rays can confirm the diagnosis. It is recommended to confirm the cause and treat it. Pleural effusion is caused by excessive fluid retention in the chest cavity, which can be bloody, purulent, inflammatory, tuberculous, and transudate, etc. It is usually a complication of many diseases. Different causes should be treated with different methods. However, if there is too much pleural effusion and there are symptoms, such as dyspnea.

When the amount of effusion is less than 0.3 liters, the symptoms are not obvious; if it exceeds 0.5 liters, the patient may feel chest tightness. When doctors perform physical examinations on patients, they will find that local percussion sounds are dull and the sounds of breathing are reduced. When the amount of fluid accumulation is large, the two layers of pleura are separated and no longer rub against each other with breathing. Chest pain will gradually ease, but breathing difficulties will gradually worsen. If the effusion increases further and compresses the mediastinal organs, the patient will experience obvious palpitations and difficulty breathing.

If you find that you have pleural effusion, how should you treat it?

Experts say that the dietary care for pleural effusion should first choose semi-liquid food that is easy to digest. Pleural effusion caused by lung cancer usually makes it impossible for patients to eat, and semi-liquid food is more convenient for patients to eat. However, these semi-liquid foods must also ensure adequate nutrition. It is best to choose some of the patients' favorite foods and make them into semi-liquid foods to increase the patients' appetite.

In the dietary care of pleural effusion, if the patient can still eat normally, more high-protein solid foods should be prepared, such as fresh vegetables and some seasonal fruits. When cooking dishes, do not make them too greasy. A light diet is of great help to the patient. You can add some small decorations to the patient's diet to stimulate the patient's senses and increase the patient's gastric juice secretion, which can enable the patient to better absorb nutrients and is also effective for the treatment and recovery of the disease!

As for pleural effusion, a normal person usually has 3 to 15 ml of fluid in the chest cavity. However, because the effusion in the pleural cavity is not constant, if you feel chest pain and fever, you should go to the hospital for a check-up to see if your pleural effusion exceeds the standard, and then take corresponding measures based on the examination results.