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Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.
This ensures an open pathway for gas exchange between a patient's lungs and the atmosphere. [1] This is accomplished by either clearing a previously obstructed airway; or by preventing airway obstruction in cases such as anaphylaxis , the obtunded patient, or medical sedation.
Assessing and monitoring blood gas levels is the most accurate means to identify a state of respiratory compromise in patients. ABG testing does however require an arterial blood sample, which is more invasive and uncomfortable for patients than a pulse oximetry reading that uses a reading based on light and color.
Gas exchange takes place in the gills which consist of thin or very flat filaments and lammellae which expose a very large surface area of highly vascularized tissue to the water. Other animals, such as insects , have respiratory systems with very simple anatomical features, and in amphibians , even the skin plays a vital role in gas exchange.
Thus, in precise usage, the words breathing and ventilation are hyponyms, not synonyms, of respiration; but this prescription is not consistently followed, even by most health care providers, because the term respiratory rate (RR) is a well-established term in health care, even though it would need to be consistently replaced with ventilation ...
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Medical oxygen storage tanks at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Oxygen may be used for patients requiring supplemental oxygen via mask. Usually accomplished by a large storage system of liquid oxygen at the hospital which is evaporated into a concentrated oxygen supply, pressures are usually around 345–380 kPa (50.0–55.1 psi), [1] [2] or in the UK and Europe, 4–5 bar ...
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