Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease (COPD)
What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?
Nurses care for patients with COPD across the spectrum of care, from outpatient to home care to
emergency department, critical care, and hospice settings.
● Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a condition of chronic
dyspnea with expiratory airflow limitation that does not significantly fluctuate.
● Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease has been defined by The Global Initiative for
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease as “a preventable and treatable disease with
some significant extrapulmonary effects that may contribute to the severity in
individual patients.”
● This updated definition is a broad description of COPD and its signs and symptoms.
Classification
There are two classifications of COPD: chronic bronchitis and emphysema. These two types of
COPD can be sometimes confusing because there are patients who have overlapping signs and
symptoms of these two distinct disease processes.
Chronic Bronchitis
● Chronic bronchitis is a disease of the airways and is defined as the presence of
cough and sputum production for at least 3 months in each of 2 consecutive
years.
● Chronic bronchitis is also termed as “blue bloaters”.
● Pollutants or allergies irritate the airways and lead to the production of sputum by the
mucus-secreting glands and goblet cells.
● A wide range of viral, bacterial, and mycoplasmal infections can produce acute
episodes of bronchitis.
Emphysema
● Pulmonary Emphysema is a pathologic term that describes an abnormal distention
of airspaces beyond the terminal bronchioles and destruction of the walls of the
alveoli.
, ● People with emphysema are also called “pink puffers”.
● There is impaired carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange, and the exchange results
from the destruction of the walls of overdistended alveoli.
● There are two main types of emphysema: panlobular and centrilobular.
○ In the panlobular, there is destruction of the respiratory bronchiole, alveolar
duct, and alveolus.
○ All spaces in the lobule are enlarged.
○ In centrilobular, pathologic changes occur mainly in the center of the
secondary lobule.
Pathophysiology
In COPD, the airflow limitation is both progressive and associated with an abnormal inflammatory
response of the lungs to noxious gases or particles.
Disease (COPD)
What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?
Nurses care for patients with COPD across the spectrum of care, from outpatient to home care to
emergency department, critical care, and hospice settings.
● Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a condition of chronic
dyspnea with expiratory airflow limitation that does not significantly fluctuate.
● Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease has been defined by The Global Initiative for
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease as “a preventable and treatable disease with
some significant extrapulmonary effects that may contribute to the severity in
individual patients.”
● This updated definition is a broad description of COPD and its signs and symptoms.
Classification
There are two classifications of COPD: chronic bronchitis and emphysema. These two types of
COPD can be sometimes confusing because there are patients who have overlapping signs and
symptoms of these two distinct disease processes.
Chronic Bronchitis
● Chronic bronchitis is a disease of the airways and is defined as the presence of
cough and sputum production for at least 3 months in each of 2 consecutive
years.
● Chronic bronchitis is also termed as “blue bloaters”.
● Pollutants or allergies irritate the airways and lead to the production of sputum by the
mucus-secreting glands and goblet cells.
● A wide range of viral, bacterial, and mycoplasmal infections can produce acute
episodes of bronchitis.
Emphysema
● Pulmonary Emphysema is a pathologic term that describes an abnormal distention
of airspaces beyond the terminal bronchioles and destruction of the walls of the
alveoli.
, ● People with emphysema are also called “pink puffers”.
● There is impaired carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange, and the exchange results
from the destruction of the walls of overdistended alveoli.
● There are two main types of emphysema: panlobular and centrilobular.
○ In the panlobular, there is destruction of the respiratory bronchiole, alveolar
duct, and alveolus.
○ All spaces in the lobule are enlarged.
○ In centrilobular, pathologic changes occur mainly in the center of the
secondary lobule.
Pathophysiology
In COPD, the airflow limitation is both progressive and associated with an abnormal inflammatory
response of the lungs to noxious gases or particles.
