Acute vs. Chronic Respiratory Failure (Nursing)

00:01 Now we're gonna look at the difference between acute and chronic respiratory failure.

00:06 Now acute means right now, in the moment.

00:09 Chronic means wow, you've had this problem for a very long time.

00:13 So the body can respond to acute or chronic more quickly? Well here's the deal, pretty much no matter what it is, if it's been a chronic problem, the body kind of adjust to it and comes on somewhat slower.

00:28 If it's an acute problem, there's usually a lot more stress on the body.

00:33 Same thing with respiratory.

00:34 Now acute respiratory failure depending on what the underlying cause is, might be something that's just short term.

00:41 If we can fix that underlying cause, they'll be okay.

00:44 It usually develops pretty quickly, you need emergency treatment and other critical care but hopefully we can resolve an episode of acute respiratory failure.

00:54 Chronic respiratory failure's ongoing.

00:57 So if I took somebody who has no history of COPD and they come in and they're in respiratory failure, I'd expect them to respond pretty quickly but not to normally have an elevated carbon dioxide level.

01:11 Somebody who's in chronic respiratory failure, it's ongoing.

01:16 They may live with a higher CO2, and a lower oxygen level everyday than the average person if they have chronic COPD.

01:26 Develops over a longer period of time, they deal with these issues on a daily basis and we probably could treat this patient in a little less intense setting, maybe a long term care or as an outpatient.

01:39 Now even a chronic respiratory failure can have some type of exacerbation and be in acute respiratory failure, but those are the general differences.

01:48 Acute respiratory failure, it's episodic, it's short term, develops relatively quickly.

01:53 Chronic respiratory failure's someone who all the time is dealing with respiratory issues, ongoing and develops over a longer period of time, but they do tend to tolerate lower levels of oxygen and higher levels of carbon dioxide than someone who's not used to that type of level.