What is a cure for pleurisy

Pleurisy

Causes | Symptoms | Wet pleurisy | Dry pleurisy | Treatment

Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura- a two-ply membrane that both encloses the lung and lines the chest cavity.

People have two pleurae, one around each lung. The pleurae act as a protective wrapping, fitting snugly over your lungs. Pleurae are made up of two layers. Normally, there is no space between the inner and outer layer. The layers are joined at the edges, so that the pleura might be compared to a closed balloon, completely empty of air and wrapped tightly around the outside of each of the lungs.

Normally, there is nothing but a thin layer of Iubricating layer of fluid between the inner pleural lining and the outer one. The smooth pleura linings and lubricating fluid allow your lungs to move freely in your chest, as they do in normal breathing.

In people with pleurisy, the two layers of pleura get inflamed (red & swollen). This can create a space between the layers called the pleural cavity (cavity means space). In wet pleurisy, this space can fill up with fluid that can get infected.

What causes pleurisy?

Pleurisy can arise from various causes and take various ways to develop, sometimes with excess fluid in the pleural cavity ("wet pleurisy") and sometimes without ("dry pleurisy"), sometimes accompanied by no pain sometimes very painful.

There are two kinds of pleurisy. A "primary" pleurisy is an inflammation arising in the pleural tissues themselves, from a germ that attacked them directly, or perhaps from an injury or growth. A "secondary" pleurisy is an added effect from some other chest disease - pneumonia, for instance - in which the germs reach the pleura as well as the lungs themselves, or tuberculosis, or lung abscess, or tumour of the lung; almost anything wrong in the chest.