What causes blebs in the lungs?
Blebs may be present on an individual’s lung (or lungs) for a long time before they rupture. Many things can cause a bleb to rupture, such as changes in air pressure or a very sudden deep breath.
What causes apical bullae?
The most common cause of a lung bulla is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Other conditions associated with lung bullae are alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, Marfan syndrome, Ehler-Danlos syndrome, cocaine smoking, sarcoidosis, HIV infection, and intravenous (IV) drug abuse.
What are apical blebs?
A pulmonary bleb is a small collection of air between the lung and the outer surface of the lung (visceral pleura) usually found in the upper lobe of the lung. When a bleb ruptures the air escapes into the chest cavity causing a pneumothorax (air between the lung and chest cavity) which can result in a collapsed lung.
What is bleb?
Definition of bleb 1 : a small blister. 2 : bubble also : a small particle. 3 : something resembling a bleb especially : a vesicular outgrowth of a plasma or nuclear membrane.
How do you treat a bleb in the lung?
Treatment options for lung blebs can range from chest tube placement to thoracic surgery for pleural resection. Surgical intervention is usually only necessary following one or more recurrence of PSP. Compared to chest X-ray screening, low-dose computed tomography reduces lung cancer deaths by 20%.
What is a bleb?
In medicine, a bleb is a blister (often hemispherical) filled with serous fluid. Blebs can form in a number of tissues by different pathologies, including frostbite. In pathology pulmonary blebs are small subpleural thin-walled air-containing spaces, not larger than 1-2 cm in diameter.
What are emphysematous blebs?
—Emphysematous blebs (Fig. 1) are blisters beneath the vis ceral pleura. They are to be distinguished from lung cysts, which are con genital, and from localized areas of extreme vesicular and bullous emphy sema.
What’s the difference between a bleb and a bullae?
Pulmonary bullae are, like blebs, cystic air spaces that have an imperceptible wall (less than 1 mm). The difference between blebs and bullae is generally considered to be their size, with the delimiter being either 1 or 2 cm in diameter, depending on the source.
What causes a pulmonary bullae ( bleb ) to occur?
In the vast majority of cases, blebs remain asymptomatic. Occasionally they are thought to rupture resulting in a pneumothorax . Blebs are thought to occur as a result of subpleural alveolar rupture, due to overload of the elastic fibers. Pulmonary bullae are, like blebs, cystic air spaces that have an imperceptible wall (less than 1 mm).
Which is the most common cause of bullae?
A giant bulla is arbitrarily defined as one that occupies at least one third of the volume of a hemithorax 5. When large, bullae can simulate pneumothorax. The most common cause is paraseptal emphysema but bullae may also be seen in association with centrilobular emphysema. 1.
How big is a bleb after a pneumothorax?
In patients who have had a pneumothorax secondary to a ruptured bleb, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to locate since it has decompressed, is surrounded by pneumothorax and has deflated adjacent lung. Blebs appear as small (<1 or 2 cm) subpleural air spaces, located most frequently at the lung apices.