Be careful when coughing up blood

Coughing up a lot of blood is very dangerous because the blood will block the airway, the patient will not be able to breathe anymore, leading to suffocation.

Master, Doctor Le Khac Bao, lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said that hemoptysis is a condition of bleeding from the lower respiratory tract and is coughed up when the patient coughs. Hemoptysis needs to be distinguished from vomiting blood or bleeding from the upper respiratory tract, including nosebleeds.

In the case of vomiting blood, blood flows from the digestive tract including the esophagus, stomach, duodenum and flows out when the patient vomits. The blood is usually dark red because it has already flowed out of the stomach. Another distinguishing feature is that digestive bleeding is often accompanied by black, tar-like stools. In the case of nosebleeds, bleeding from the ear, nose and throat area, the blood is also bright red but can often be seen immediately as blood flowing from the nose, the patient may not cough but the blood still flows.

Coughing up blood has many different causes and diagnosis is not easy. Illustration: homeremedies.

According to Dr. Bao, patients usually feel itchy in the neck, stuffy and uncomfortable in the chest, then cough hard and see blood. Coughing up blood is usually bright red blood mixed with air bubbles because it comes from the respiratory tract with a lot of air.

Coughing up blood is a symptom of many different diseases, ranging from very mild diseases such as acute bronchitis to much more serious diseases such as lung cancer. Coughing up blood can be due to obvious causes, that is, it can be seen at first glance, such as after chest trauma, after inhaling foreign objects such as fish bones, severe blood clotting disorders, complications from medical interventions such as thoracentesis or pleural drainage. Common causes of hemoptysis include pulmonary tuberculosis, lung cancer, bronchiectasis, pulmonary edema, pulmonary embolism... Coughing up blood can also be due to benign bronchial tumors, solitary vascular tumors, alveolar hemorrhage, vascular malformations, ruptured aortic aneurysm, patients with tracheostomy...

The danger level of hemoptysis varies depending on the amount of bleeding, the degree of airway obstruction and the cause of hemoptysis. Coughing up a large amount of blood is more dangerous than coughing up a small amount of blood. Hemoptysis is considered to be severe when the total amount of blood coughed up is over 200ml/day or over 50ml/cough. Coughing up a large amount of blood is very dangerous because the blood will cause airway obstruction, the patient will not be able to breathe and will suffocate. Coughing up a large amount of blood repeatedly will reduce the blood volume in the body, the patient will become anemic.

Although coughing up blood due to lung cancer is not immediately dangerous if the amount is small, because lung cancer in most cases cannot be treated, the long-term prognosis is worse. On the contrary, coughing up blood due to pulmonary tuberculosis, although the amount of blood is large, is immediately life-threatening, but if you get through this acute stage and successfully treat the tuberculosis, it is no longer dangerous because basically tuberculosis can be treated today.

"Because coughing up blood has an unpredictable progression, if you cough up blood, you must see a doctor immediately for diagnosis and timely intervention to avoid serious progression," Dr. Bao emphasized.

It is possible to base on the progress of the amount of blood coughed up, the color of the blood, and the frequency of coughing to diagnose whether the bleeding has stopped or continues. If the amount of blood coughed up gradually increases, the color is bright red, and the time interval between two times is getting closer, then it is clear that the hemoptysis is continuing to progress. On the contrary, if the amount of blood coughed up gradually decreases, the color becomes darker, and the time interval between two times of coughing up blood becomes farther, then the hemoptysis has stopped.

Doctor Bao recommends that coughing up blood has many different causes and diagnosis is not easy. Therefore, every time you cough up blood, you need to see a doctor to find out the cause, from there, have appropriate treatment intervention.

According to VnExpress