Word parts
What it means
A state in which alveolusal-VEE-uh-lus (plural alveoli, al-VEE-uh-ly)One of the tiny air sacs at the ends of the smallest airways in the lungs.Full entry collapse or do not fill, so that part of the lung cannot take part in gas exchangeGAS eks-CHAYNJThe movement of oxygen from the air sacs of the lungs into the blood and of carbon dioxide from the blood into the air sacs.Full entry . It often follows surgery and anesthesia, when pain keeps a person from breathing deeply and coughing. It can also come from a mucus plug, a tumor pressing on an airway, or fluid or air around the lung.
For the nurse
Help clients after surgery to breathe deeply, cough and use the incentive spirometer, often 10 times an hour while awake. Get them out of bed and walking early, give pain relief so they can breathe deeply, and listen for lung sounds that are reduced over one area.
In a chart
"Diminished breath sounds in right lower lobe; chest X-ray shows atelectasis."
At a glance
| Spanish | atelectasia |
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Related terms
postoperative
Describing the time after surgery, from the end of the operation until recovery.
pneumonia
An infection of one or both lungs in which the air sacs fill with fluid or pus.
alveolus
One of the tiny air sacs at the ends of the smallest airways in the lungs.
gas exchange
The movement of oxygen from the air sacs of the lungs into the blood and of carbon dioxide from the blood into the air sacs.