I have always thought of edema simply as swelling. But the more that I have learned about the different systems of the body I've realized that causes and/or effects of edema occur throughout the organs. The most common being heart, liver and lungs. Here I was thinking edema only happened if you were pregnant or ate too much salt...boy was I wrong!
For example, a patient with heart disease. Poor cardiac function can cause a decreased volume of blood pumped out by the heart. The decreased cardiac output is responsible for a decreased flow of blood to the kidneys. The kidneys can sense that there is a reduction of the blood volume in the body. To counter act the loss of fluid, the kidneys retain salt and water. The kidneys are then fooled into thinking that the body needs to retain more fluid volume but, in actuality the body is already holding too much fluid. This fluid ultimately results in the buildup of fluid within the lungs, which can cause shortness of breath. This accumulation of fluid in the lung is called pulmonary edema. At the same time, there is also an accumulation of fluid in the legs causing edema.
WOW! It's amazing how all the systems coincide with each other!
