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What changes inside the lungs during pneumonia?
Make it clearer
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs, one or both, and the culprit isn't always the same: it can come from bacteria, viruses, or fungi. What the infection sets off is inflammation inside the alveoli, the tiny air sacs where the lung ends, and those sacs can end up filled with fluid or pus.
That's where the trouble lies, because the space that material takes up is exactly the space meant for the air involved in gas exchange, the trade of gases that happens in those sacs. It's a sponge holding water instead of air. And how serious things get isn't decided by the germ alone: the person's age and overall health matter too.
In brief
Pneumonia is an infection of one or both lungs that can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi.
Inflammation can fill the alveoli, the lungs' tiny air sacs, with fluid or pus. That material displaces some of the air that would normally be involved in gas exchange.
The severity does not depend on the cause alone. It also varies with the person's age and overall health.
Sources (2)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood InstitutePneumonia: What Is Pneumonia?Published
- National Library of MedicinePneumoniaPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated