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Respiratory acidosis
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Respiratory acidosis is a problem that starts with breathing. What usually fails is ventilation, the movement of air in and out, and that is why carbon dioxide builds up. The body never stops making smoke; what fails is the chimney meant to carry it out.
The next step explains the name. When someone hypoventilates, that is, breathes less than they need to, more carbon dioxide is produced than the body can clear. That excess drives up hydrogen ions, which are acid in their simplest form, and as they rise the pH falls: the blood turns more acidic than it should be.
Then the kidney steps in to help. It starts excreting more acid in the urine, as hydrogen and as ammonium, and at the same time it reabsorbs more bicarbonate, the substance that buffers acid.
That rescue runs on its own clock. In chronic respiratory acidosis, the kind that has been going on for a while, the kidney's compensation builds up little by little, over days.
In brief
Respiratory acidosis usually involves a failure of ventilation and a buildup of carbon dioxide.
The body never stops making the smoke; what fails is the chimney meant to carry it out.
In hypoventilation, more carbon dioxide is produced than cleared, hydrogen ions rise and pH falls.
The kidney compensates by excreting more acid, as hydrogen and ammonium, and reabsorbing more bicarbonate.
In the chronic form, that kidney compensation builds over days.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingRespiratory Acidosis, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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