how could a respiratory tract infection result in respiratory failure?

Question:

Answers:
infection -- bacterial
failure -- happens when the blood ph becomes acidic and goes down to 7.25 and below.

so to answer the question, never had a case wherein a patient who had respiratory tract infection, had respiratory failure. most likely, people with COPD are at risk for respiratory failure. but i am guessing that you CAN risk respiratory failure because of an infection -- due to hypoventilation.

Other Answers:
your respirstory system gets full of phlem that causes your respiratory system to breakdown

Many conditions that affect the lungs can cause respiratory failure. A respiratory tract infection, such as pneumonia, can result in respiratory failure due to excess mucus occluding airways and/or by the infection damaging the lung tissue. Inflammation also plays a role. Below is a link to a short article on respiratory failure which goes through various causes.

My baby daughter suffered respiratory failure from an unknown cause 10 months ago, and I was told that a virus may have caused it (they could not say for sure). I also had a good 34 year old friend die last year from respiratory failure brought on by viral pneumonia. So yes, it does happen.

Well, first understand that "Respiratory Failure" is a state of the lungs where they fail to do their job, ie. they fail to take (enough) oxygen (O2) in and to breathe (enough) carbon dioxide (CO2) out.

It is defined as having a pO2 <60mmHg (type I resp failure) or a pCO2 >55mmHg (type II resp failure)

So to cause respiratory failure an infection could:

1) block off the airway
- this is usually in small children eg. bronchiolitis (caused most commonly by virus, eg. RSV) where the air passages are small to begin with.

- this would also include blocking off middle sized bronchi as is the case in asthma, where bronchospasm, mucous plugging and edema of the bronchial lining all contribute to airway obstruction

2) inflammation of the alveoli can cause fluid or pus accumulation here. These are very important for gas exchange and blocking enough of them will cause respiratory failure. This would be the cardinal mechanism for pneumonia

3) comorbid conditions may contribute. For instance, an infection may place an undue metabolic strain on a weak heart with ischaemic heart disease. This may cause the heart to go into heart failure and cause pulmonary oedema. This would block the alveoli with fluid (see 2 above) and may cause respiratory failure if bad enough. Similar things for comorbid liver or kidney failure.

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how could a respiratory tract infection result in respiratory failure?

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