Breathing difficulties - first aid

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Collapsed lung, pneumothorax

Breathing difficulties - first aid

Definition:

Breathing difficulties can be described in several different ways. You may beshort of breath, unable to take a deep breath, gasping for air or feel like you are not getting enough air.

See also choking.

Alternative Names:
Difficulty breathing - first aid; Dyspnea - first aid; Shortness of breath - first aid
Considerations:

text continues below

If you are having difficulty breathing, it is almost always a medical emergency (other than feeling slightly winded from normal activity like exercise or climbing a hill).

Causes:

Difficulty breathing has many potential causes. Some of the most common are:

Sudden illness or infections like pneumonia, acute bronchitis, whooping cough, croup, or epiglottitis
Heart disease, asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or heart failure
Heart attack
Injury to the neck, chest wall, or lungs
Collapsed lung, which can happen if you have emphysema or asthma, but may also happen spontaneously in young, healthy people
High altitudes, which can be a problem even in young people
Cigarette smoking or breathing secondhand smoke
Pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot in the lung, which can cause very abrupt and severe difficulty breathing
Life-threatening allergic reaction