NURS 203 Lecture Notes - Paroxysmal Nocturnal Dyspnoea, Pulmonary Edema, Edema
Document Summary
Chapter 22 heart failure: left or right heart failure. Left hf = lungs and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea/pillow orthopnea. Left heart failure=forward failure, cant get blood out of the heart b/c the lv fails. It"s a forward failure b/c you are having problems getting blood outside of the heart. This means that edv will increase b/c you cannot get all the blood out b/c you cannot push it out. The pressure and volume will go back in to the left atrium, back into the pulmonary vessels, increase the hydrostatic pressure, and then pulmonary edema. With chronic left heart failure, this will lead to hemorrhage and alveolar macrophages will phagocytose rbc"s, leading to rusty colored sputum. On cytology, you will see heart failure cells, which are alveolar macrophages that has phagocytosed rbc"s and is broken down to hemosiderin. Left heart failure is a diagnosis of symptoms, b/c the main symptom in lhf is dyspnea (sob), have trouble breathing b/c fluid in there.
