What is the main function of pleura?

What is the main function of pleura?

The function of the pleura is to allow optimal expansion and contraction of the lungs during breathing. The pleural fluid acts as a lubricant, allowing the parietal and visceral pleura to glide over each other friction free.

How do the pleura help with breathing?

The pleural cavity aids optimal functioning of the lugs during breathing. It transmits movements of the chest wall to the lungs, particularly during heavy breathing. The closely approved chest wall transmits pressures to the visceral pleural surface and hence to the lung (10-19).

What is the pleura and what does it do?

The chest cavity is lined by a thin shiny membrane called the pleura, which covers the inside surface of the rib cage and spreads over the lungs as well. Normally, the pleura produces a small amount of fluid which serves as a lubricant to the lungs as they move back and forth against the chest wall during respiration.

How does the pleura keep the lungs open?

The pleural cavity always maintains a negative pressure. During inspiration, its volume expands, and the intrapleural pressure drops. The negative pressure of the pleural cavity acts as a suction to keep the lungs from collapsing. Damage to the pleura could disrupt this system, resulting in a pneumothorax.

What are pleural reflections?

The lines along which the parietal pleura changes direction as it passes from one wall of the pleural cavity to another are called the lines of pleural reflection. The lines of pleural reflection are formed by the parietal pleura as it changes direction (reflects) from one wall of the pleural cavity to another.

What happens if the pleura is punctured?

If the chest wall, and thus the pleural space, is punctured, blood, air or both can enter the pleural space. Air and/or blood rushes into the space in order to equalise the pressure with that of the atmosphere. As a result, the fluid is disrupted and the two membranes no longer adhere to each other.

Why is pleurisy so painful?

If you have pleurisy, these tissues swell and become inflamed. As a result, the two layers of the pleural membrane rub against each other like two pieces of sandpaper, producing pain when you inhale and exhale. The pleuritic pain lessens or stops when you hold your breath.

How the pleura normally work to keep the lung open and inflated?

Intrapleural pressure The seal of the pleura prevents the lungs from separating from the rib cage but the natural tendency of the thorax to spring out and the lungs to collapse produces forces pulling in opposite directions.

How does air get into the pleural space?

Air can enter the intrapleural space through a communication from the chest wall (ie, trauma) or through the lung parenchyma across the visceral pleura. See the image below. Radiograph of a patient with a complete right-sided pneumothorax due to a stab wound.

What are the pleural recesses?

The pleural recesses are potential spaces within the thoracic cavity where, particularly in expiration, the visceral and parietal pleura are relatively distant. Such is the negative pressure of the serous fluid lining the cavity with the lung relatively contracted, that parietal pleura may be drawn inwards.

What happens when fluid accumulates in the pleura?

A pleural effusion is the accumulation of excess fluid in the pleural space. When this happens, breathing can be impaired, sometimes significantly.

What are the functions and disorders of the pleura?

Function and Disorders of the Pleura. What Purposes It Serves and What Can Affect It. More in Lung Cancer. The pleura is a vital part of the respiratory tract whose purpose it is to cushion the lungs and reduce any friction which may develop between the lungs, rib cage, and chest cavity.

How are the layers of the pleura glued together?

This is a surgery in which an irritating substance, such as talc, is placed between the two layers of the pleura. The talc causes irritation and inflammation, eventually causing the two layers to adhere and become “glued” together, so that the pleural cavity no longer exists for fluid to accumulate.

What happens when air rushes into the pleural cavity?

Air rushes into the pleural cavity, and the intrapleural pressure increases as it equilibrates with the atmospheric pressure. Specifically, the transpulmonary pressure and, thus, vacuum effect is lost, causing the lungs to collapse. A pneumothorax is a collection of air in the pleural cavity resulting in a collapsed lung.