Respiratory Failure

[HUBAIL]

What is the prognosis of patient having a respiratory failure?

[HUBAIL]

Thanx for yr answer

[Sunny602]

People with respiratory failure can be the chronic type (long lasting) or acute (occurs suddenly). Respiratory failure means that there isn't effective exchange of gases, O2 and CO2-either there is a drop in oxygen level and or a rise in carbon dioxide in the blood.
Acute failure occurs very quickly and needs immediate intervention (such as a vent or some other breathing device). Chronic respiratory failure is a slower process, the body has a chance to compensate for the imbalance of arterial gases (the kidneys are responsible for this). Some people with COPD (emphysema, chronic bronchitis etc) have high CO2 in their blood, but it seems to be their norm. If they have low O2 levels as well, then they are treated with oxygen. Prognosis is tough to guess at because people can live with low O2/high CO2 levels for some time if it is chronic. I guess it depends on what is causing the respiratory failure (pneumonia, ARDS, etc would result in acute failure and might be tougher to reverse...). There are times when the CO2 might climb too high for the body to compensate and the person will have acute and chronic respiratory failure.
Remember, I am not a doctor, just an ex ICU RN....the best person to talk to would be your doctor (or the doc of the person involved with permission) as he or she would know your case better.
I hope that this helped...Sunny