Hypoxemia refers to a reduction in arterial oxygenation below the normal range, regardless of whether gas exchange is impaired in the lung, arterial oxygen content (C a O 2 – which represents the amount of oxygen delivered to the tissues) is adequate, or tissue hypoxia exists. Hypoxia exists when there is a reduced amount of oxygen in the tissues of the body. More serious cases are treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). To improve blood oxygenation, infants at risk of hypoxia may be placed inside incubators that provide warmth, humidity, and supplemental oxygen. Because the lungs develop late in pregnancy, premature infants frequently possess underdeveloped lungs. Hypoxia is a common complication of preterm birth in newborn infants. Mild, non-damaging intermittent hypoxia is used intentionally during altitude training to develop an athletic performance adaptation at both the systemic and cellular level. Hypoxia also occurs in healthy individuals when breathing inappropriate mixtures of gases with a low oxygen content, e.g., while diving underwater, especially when using malfunctioning closed-circuit rebreather systems that control the amount of oxygen in the supplied air. Generalized hypoxia occurs in healthy people when they ascend to high altitude, where it causes altitude sickness leading to potentially fatal complications: high altitude pulmonary edema ( HAPE) and high altitude cerebral edema ( HACE). Hypoxia can be due to external causes, when the breathing gas is hypoxic, or internal causes, such as reduced effectiveness of gas transfer in the lungs, reduced capacity of the blood to carry oxygen, compromised general or local perfusion, or inability of the affected tissues to extract oxygen from, or metabolically process, an adequate supply of oxygen from an adequately oxygenated blood supply. Hypoxia in which there is complete absence of oxygen supply is referred to as anoxia. Hypoxia differs from hypoxemia and anoxemia, in that hypoxia refers to a state in which oxygen present in a tissue or the whole body is insufficient, whereas hypoxemia and anoxemia refer specifically to states that have low or no oxygen in the blood. Although hypoxia is often a pathological condition, variations in arterial oxygen concentrations can be part of the normal physiology, for example, during strenuous physical exercise. Hypoxia may be classified as either generalized, affecting the whole body, or local, affecting a region of the body. Hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level. Hypoxiation, lack of oxygen, low blood oxygen (technically hypoxemia), oxygen starvationĬyanosis of the hand in an elderly person with low oxygen saturationĬyanosis, numbness or pins and needles feeling of the extremitiesĭiabetes, coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke, embolism, thrombosis, deep-vein thrombosis, tobacco smoking
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