Gas Exchange
You're watching a preview. 300,000+ students are watching the full lesson.
Included In This Lesson
Study Tools For Gas Exchange
NURSING.com students have a 99.25% NCLEX pass rate.
Outline
Overview
Gas exchange = exchange of O2 and CO2 in the alveoli of the lungs.
Nursing Points
General
- Oxygenation – O2 into bloodstream
- Ventilation – air in and out
- Respiration – the process of gas exchange – CO2 released with exhalation
- **Please note – the video has the terms Ventilation and Respiration backwards. The outline has been adjusted and verified to be correct**
- Perfusion – O2 into tissues
Assessment
- Poor “contact” between capillary & alveoli = ↓ gas exchange
- Collapsed alveoli
- Atelectasis
- Pulmonary edema
- Decreased blood flow
- Clot
- Low blood volume
- Vasoconstriction
- Collapsed alveoli
Therapeutic Management
- Monitor SpO2
- Monitor ABG’s
- PaO2 = oxygenation
- pCO2 = ventilation
Unlock the Complete Study System
Used by 300,000+ nursing students. 99.25% NCLEX pass rate.
- Full lesson outlines
- NCLEX simulator (SIMCLEX)
- 6,500+ practice questions
- 2,000+ lesson videos
- 300+ cheatsheets
200% NCLEX Pass Guarantee.
No Contract. Cancel Anytime.
ADPIE Related Lessons
Related Nursing Process (ADPIE) Lessons for Gas Exchange
Transcript
Okay guys we’re going to talk about the basics of gas exchange. We won’t go into any advanced concepts, but, it’s really important that you understand the basic physiology of gas exchange, because it affects every disease process we’re going to talk about.
The first thing is you really need to know is the difference between these four words. Sometimes people use them interchangeably, but they are not the same. Respiration is the actual act of breathing in and breathing out, moving air in and out of your lungs. Oxygenation is the process of putting oxygen into the bloodstream to be circulated. So that happens within the lungs as well. Ventilation is actually defined as the process by which oxygen and CO2 are exchanged. Think about a ventilation system in a building – the purpose is to remove the unclean air. So ventilation is the process of getting rid of CO2 in exchange for oxygen. If you don’t have adequate respirations, it is impossible to get adequate oxygenation and ventilation, because there’s no air moving. But, you could have perfect respirations, but struggle to oxygenate and ventilate because of problems within the lungs themselves. Finally, perfusion is the ability to get oxygen to the tissues. The lung tissue needs to be perfused with blood, but, the act of perfusion takes place within the blood vessels and tissues as opposed to within the lungs.
So remember that we said the alveoli are the functional unit of the lung, this is where all gas exchange happens. Deoxygenated blood comes into the capillaries that surround the alveoli, they release their CO2 into the alveoli, and oxygen diffuses from the alveoli into the blood. Then, oxygenated blood leaves the capillary bed to return to the heart. What we’ll see is that there needs to be contact, so-to-speak, between the air in the alveoli and the blood in the capillaries. All of this happens by diffusion, but if anything causes a disconnect here, it’s going to impair gas exchange.
The two big things that can cause problems are collapsed alveoli and decrease blood flow. With collapsed alveoli you have your normal blood vessel here with blood flowing in and flowing out normally, but you have a deflated alveoli here and therefore the contact points between the alveoli and the capillaries are decreased. The two most common causes of this are atelectasis like we talked about in the previous lesson, or pulmonary edema because fluid builds up around the alveoli causing them to collapse. The second problem we see causing gas exchange problems is decreased blood flow to the alveoli. So you have a normally inflated alveoli here except that for whatever reason the blood flow is not getting to this capillary bed adequately. This could be because of a clot that blocks blood flow all together, it could be because of significantly low blood volume so there’s just less perfusion, or because of severe vasoconstriction that reduces blood flow to the lungs. Both of these situations are going to limit the body’s ability to perform gas exchange. As we look at different disease processes in this course you’ll see these situations more clearly.
Now, we know that the lungs play a role in acid-base balance, but we can also monitor gas exchange using arterial blood gases. You’ll see that your SpO2 and PaO2 will tell you about your oxygenation ability, while your pCO2 tells you about ventilation. Make sure you check out the ABG lesson in the labs course to learn more.
So remember the key terms are respiration, ventilation, oxygenation, and perfusion. Make sure that you review those terms so that you can follow discussions of pathophysiology in the coming lessons. Remember that the alveoli and capillaries need to have good contact in order for gas exchange to occur. And remember that we use arterial blood gases to monitor the effectiveness of our gas exchange.
We hope this basic discussion of gas exchange helps in the coming lesson so that you can better understand the pathophysiology and disease processes we’re going to talk about. Now go out and be your best selves today, and, as always, happy nursing!
Study Faster with Full Video Transcripts
99.25% NCLEX Pass Rate vs 88.8% National Average
- Full lesson outlines
- NCLEX simulator (SIMCLEX)
- 6,500+ practice questions
- 2,000+ lesson videos
- 300+ cheatsheets
200% NCLEX Pass Guarantee.
No Contract. Cancel Anytime.
🚨PRICE INCREASE COMING
Lock in Lifetime Access at OVER 50% Off
reg $499 → $199
or 5 payments of $39.99
Ends January 17
Study Plan for Study Skills, Test Taking for the NCLEX® Using Med-Surg (Lewis 10th ed.) designed for Westmoreland County Community College
Concepts Covered:
- Concepts of Population Health
- Factors Influencing Community Health
- Community Health Overview
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Upper GI Disorders
- Renal Disorders
- Newborn Care
- Integumentary Disorders
- Tissues and Glands
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Brain
- Digestive System
- Urinary Disorders
- Urinary System
- Musculoskeletal Trauma
- Concepts of Mental Health
- Health & Stress
- Developmental Theories
- Fundamentals of Emergency Nursing
- Communication
- Basics of NCLEX
- Test Taking Strategies
- Prioritization
- Delegation
- Emotions and Motivation
- Integumentary Disorders
- Legal and Ethical Issues
- Basic
- Preoperative Nursing
- Labor and Delivery
- Fetal Development
- Newborn Complications
- Postpartum Complications
- Postpartum Care
- Labor Complications
- Pregnancy Risks
- Prenatal Concepts
- Circulatory System
- Cardiac Disorders
- Emergency Care of the Cardiac Patient
- Vascular Disorders
- Shock
- Postoperative Nursing
- Intraoperative Nursing
- Oncology Disorders
- Neurological Emergencies
- Respiratory Disorders
- Female Reproductive Disorders
- Acute & Chronic Renal Disorders
- Liver & Gallbladder Disorders
- Lower GI Disorders
- Disorders of Pancreas
- Disorders of the Thyroid & Parathyroid Glands
- Disorders of the Adrenal Gland
- Disorders of the Posterior Pituitary Gland
- Immunological Disorders
- Hematologic Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Integumentary Important Points
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Emergency Care of the Neurological Patient
- Peripheral Nervous System Disorders
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Spinal Cord
- Neurologic and Cognitive Disorders
- Eating Disorders
- Noninfectious Respiratory Disorder
- Respiratory Emergencies
- Infectious Respiratory Disorder
- Psychological Emergencies
- Trauma-Stress Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Cognitive Disorders
- Bipolar Disorders
- Depressive Disorders
- Psychotic Disorders
- Anxiety Disorders
- Somatoform Disorders
- Infectious Disease Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Renal and Urinary Disorders
- Cardiovascular Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Gastrointestinal Disorders
- Hematologic Disorders
- Oncologic Disorders
- Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
- Childhood Growth and Development
- Adulthood Growth and Development
- Medication Administration
- Nervous System
- Dosage Calculations
- Learning Pharmacology
- Prefixes
- Suffixes