Question

What is plural fluid? Where is it present?what are its symptoms?

Answer 1

Dear student,

The pleura are thin membranes that line the lungs and the inside of the chest cavity and act to lubricate and facilitate breathing. Normally, a small amount of fluid is present in the pleura. This is called pleural fluid.
Pleural effusion, sometimes referred to as “water on the lungs,” is the build-up of excess fluid between the layers of the pleura outside the lungs.

Causes:

• Heart failure
• Pulmonary embolism
• Cirrhosis (liver cirrhosis....)
• After open heart surgery

• Pneumonia
• Cancer
• Kidney disease
• Inflammatory disease and so on.

Major symptoms:

Some patients with pleural effusion have no symptoms, with the condition discovered on a chest x-ray that is performed for another reason. The patient may have unrelated symptoms due to the disease or condition that has caused the effusion.

Symptoms of pleural effusion include:

• Chest pain
• Dry, non-productive cough
• Dyspnea (shortness of breath, or difficult, labored breathing)
• Orthopnea (the inability to breathe easily unless the person is sitting up straight or standing erect)