A few patients of mine while on the floors today asked, what is Emphysema as I mentioned that the chest X-ray or CT showed signs of this.

This is a disease caused by the break down of the lung from a cause, usually smoking. It is a chronic disease, meaning a long term issue that has been going on for months sometimes years. It causes difficulty breathing. Sometimes so much difficulty that patients require oxygen support as well. Emphysema is one type of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The reason why its called obstructive is, it take a long time to exhale to get all the air out of lungs. Emphysema has no cure, but your lung function can improve if you stop smoking.

-Stop smoking everybody, live longer DR SARELA.