“In severe respiratory failure, these get inflated when you breathe in, but instead of the balls retaining their shape, they collapse when you exhale.”
This is a pulmonary problem that COVID patients face.
Moreover, “When a person is lying in the supine position (on their backs), the heart is pressing on the lungs. Because of this certain parts of the lungs are not able to fully inflate.”
According to Pande, other ways in which proning helps patients with acute respiratory failure are:
- The homogenous distribution of ventilation and improvement of overall oxygenation
- Very good matching of ventilation (lung inflation) with perfusion (blood supply)
- Due to gravity, secretions in the lungs also come out reducing the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia.
When it comes to COVID-related respiratory failure, Pande speaks of two types of cases, one is the type of patients who don’t feel any outward symptoms or discomfort, a condition dubbed ‘happy hypoxia’.
The other is the section that comprises…