NURSING INTERVENTIONS TO PREVENT POSTOPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS IN COPD PATIENTS
Madison, and Irwin (1998) define Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as a sort of umbrella term that refers to a large group of lung diseases which can interfere with normal breathing. In their discussion of the various illnesses that are associated with the condition, COPD Support (2001), notes that there are three basic conditions which COPD patients can suffer from: emphysema (the progressive destruction of the grape-like sacs that exchange oxygen in the air for carbon dioxide); chronic bronchitis; and chronic asthma. Not all patients have all three conditions, although a few do.
In a report issued by the National Institutes of Health (2001), it is estimated that approximately 13.5 million Americans have COPD, and that it is now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. The National Institutes of Health also state that the most common causes of COPD, while not fully understood, include: smoking, air pollution, occupational exposures (especially if combined with cigarette smoking) and heredity.
Symptoms of COPD are said to include: shortness of breath; cough and sputum (occurring for many years before the development of shortness of breath; frequent respiratory infections: cyanosis, abnormal lung songs, swelling of the feet and heart failure (National Institutes of Health, 2001). The most common COPD patient is an older male who smokes and who suffers from a degree of both bronchitis and emphysema (Hanson, 1997).
Glaspole, Gabbay, Smith, Rabinov and Snell (2000) report that for severe, far-advanced COPD disease, some patients may benefit from dramatic and very expensive therapy such as surgical lung volume reduction or even lung transplantation. While neither of these procedures cures COPD, each may be helpful for a small select group of patients with life-threatening stages of the disease.
As to the sociodemo...