Dyspnea

Abstract

The purpose of this lecture is to interpret the complaint of dyspnea for otolaryngologists. Dyspnea is an important subjective symptom, but its mechanisms have not been completely established. In addition, dyspnea is a difficult symptom to evaluate quantitatively. Recently, a visual analog scale and the Borg scale have been widely employed to express degree of dyspnea. For the clinical evaluation of patients complaining of dyspnea, precise analysis is important. Hypoxemia is not proportional to the degree of dyspnea, but blood gas analysis is important for the determination of the severity of dyspnea, its causes and the necessity of emergency care.