In: Nursing
Ans) Auscultation:
- Most important and effective clinical technique of assessment.
- Helps in evaluating a patient's respiratory function
Wheezing sounds like-
- Musical sounds that may be audible both to the patient and to others suggests partial airway obstruction from secretions, tissue inflammation or a foreign body.
- Continuous, high pitched, hissing sounds heard normally on expiration but also sometimes on inspiration because when air flows through airways they are narrowed by secretions, foreign bodies, or obstructive lesions.
Causes of wheezes:
- Inspiratory wheezing heard asthma, chronic bronchitis, COPD, CHF
Wheezing is heard in:
- The lungs frequently accompanies expiratory wheezing during acute asthma
- In some patients with asthma, wheezing may only be heard during inspiration. However, stridor (monophonic inspiratory wheeze heard loudest over the neck) is a worrisome sign of upper airway obstruction.