Answer:
Emphysema is one of the lung disorders caused by damage to the air sacs in the lungs, which reduces the body's ability to take advantage of oxygen from the air. This results in inefficient breathing, because it takes extra effort to empty the air from the lungs. This disease progressively destroys the fibers that allow the airways to remain open. This problem causes the collapse of these pathways when a person exhales air. That is, the air that the lungs expel that contains carbon dioxide cannot get out, and consequently, the fresh, oxygen-filled air does not enter the lungs.
Step-by-step explanation:
When we breathe, the air comes through the bronchial tree to a kind of small sacs called alveoli, which are located at the end of the bronchi and fill the lungs. From the lungs, oxygen is transported, through the arteries, to the different tissues and organs of the body. But, generally due to smoking, people with emphysema have damaged alveoli: the inner walls of these sacs weaken and break, which creates larger air spaces and therefore reduces the air exchange surface of the cells lungs. Consequently, the amount of oxygen that reaches the blood decreases and this can produce in the patient a sensation of shortness of breath, which is the frequent characteristic manifestation of this respiratory pathology. In the pulmonary alveoli, the oxygen in the air is exchanged for carbon dioxide in the blood. The walls of the air sacs are thin and fragile, so the injuries that occur in these air sacs are irreversible. Emphysema causes the alveoli - the small air sacs in the lungs that provide oxygen to the bloodstream - to weaken and they become less elastic. That means the body has difficulty getting enough oxygen or has excess carbon dioxide in the body.