What is the Difference Between Emphysema and Atelectasis

The key difference between emphysema and atelectasis is that emphysema is a lung condition that causes shortness of breath due to damaged air sacs in the lungs, while atelectasis is a lung condition that causes the collapse of one or more parts of the lung due to pressure outside of the lung, a blockage, low airflow, or scarring.

Lung conditions or diseases are problems in the lungs that prevent the lungs from functioning properly. They mainly affect the lung air sacs known as alveoli. Some of these conditions may include asthma, COPD, lung cancer, emphysema, and atelectasis.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Emphysema 
3. What is Atelectasis
4. Similarities – Emphysema and Atelectasis
5. Emphysema vs. Atelectasis in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Emphysema vs. Atelectasis

What is Emphysema?

Emphysema is a lung disease that causes shortness of breath due to damage to the walls of the alveoli in the lungs. The main cause of emphysema is smoking. Emphysema has other causes as well, such as air pollution, genetic factors such as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and respiratory infections. Approximately, over 3 million people in the United States suffer from emphysema. The symptoms of emphysema are shortness of breath, tiredness, long-term coughing, tightness in the chest, increased mucus production, abnormal mucus colour, heart problems, trouble sleeping, anxiety, depression, and weight loss. The complications that result from this condition include pneumonia, bronchitis, and lung infections.

Emphysema can be diagnosed through physical examinations, chest X-rays, CT scans, pulmonary function tests, arterial blood gas, electrocardiograms, blood tests, and genetic tests. Furthermore, treatment options for emphysema include quitting smoking, bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids, oral corticosteroids, oral corticosteroids, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medications, oxygen therapy, lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), bronchoscopic lung volume reduction, and lung transplant.

What is Atelectasis?

Atelectasis is a lung condition that happens when lung sacs cannot inflate properly due to the pressure outside of the lung, a blockage, low airflow, or scarring. This leads to a partial or complete collapsed lung. Moreover, the symptoms of atelectasis may include hypoxemia, shortness of breath, coughing, chest pain, rapid breathing, and skin and lips turning blue. The causes of atelectasis include surgery, mucus plug, inhaled objects, fluid around the lungs, pneumothorax, noncancerous growths, cancerous tumors, lung scarring, and underlying illness. The complications that can result from this condition are low blood oxygen, pneumonia, and respiratory failure.

Atelectasis can be diagnosed through physical examination, chest X-ray, CT scan, and bronchoscopy. Furthermore, treatment options for atelectasis may include deep breathing exercises, removing obstructions in the lung, physical therapy, inhaled medications, and managing tumors or other chronic lung conditions.

What are the Similarities Between Emphysema and Atelectasis?

• Emphysema and atelectasis are two different lung conditions.
• Both conditions result in breathing difficulties.
• Both conditions can cause complications.

What is the Difference Between Emphysema and Atelectasis?

Emphysema is a lung condition that causes shortness of breath due to damaged air sacs in the lungs, while atelectasis is a lung condition that causes the collapse of one or more parts of the lung due to the pressure outside of the lung, a blockage, low airflow, or scarring. Thus, this is the key difference between emphysema and atelectasis. Furthermore, emphysema is caused by smoking, air pollution, genetic factors such as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and respiratory infections. On the other hand, atelectasis is caused by surgery, mucus plug, inhaled object, fluid around the lungs, pneumothorax, noncancerous growths, cancerous tumors, lung scarring, and underlying illness.

The infographic below presents the differences between emphysema and atelectasis in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Emphysema vs. Atelectasis

COPD, emphysema, atelectasis, pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis are different lung conditions. Emphysema causes shortness of breath due to damage to the walls of the alveoli in the lungs. Atelectasis causes partial collapse or incomplete inflation of the lung due to the pressure outside of the lung, a blockage, low airflow, or scarring. So, this summarizes the difference between emphysema and atelectasis.

Reference:

1. “Emphysema.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
2. “Atelectasis: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment.” Cleveland Clinic.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Emphysema, centrilobular” By Dr. Yale Rosen Atlas of Pulmonary Pathology (CC BY-SA 2.0)  via Flickr
2. “Atelectasis” By Dr. Yale Rosen Atlas of Pulmonary Pathology (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr