Lung inflation

Introduction: I am going to be demonstrating what your lungs look like when you breath. When you pump air into the lungs (when you breath) they will inflate when you breath in and will deflate when you breath out.

How does air get into the body?

To deliver oxygen to the body, air is breathed in through the nose, mouth or both. The nose is the preferred route since it is a better filter than the mouth. The nose decreases the amount of irritants delivered to the lung, whilst also heating and adding moisture (humidity) into the air we breathe. When large amounts of air are needed, the nose is not the most efficient way of getting air into the lungs and therefore mouth breathing may be used. Mouth breathing is commonly needed when exercising.

After entering the nose or mouth, air travels down the trachea or "windpipe". The trachea is the tube lying closest to the neck. Behind the trachea is the esophagus or "food tube". When we inhale air moves down the trachea and when we eat food moves down the esophagus. The path air and food take is controlled by the epiglottis, a gate that prevents food from entering the trachea. Occasionally, food or liquid may enter the trachea resulting in choking and coughing spasms.

The trachea divides into one left and one right breathing tube, and these are termed bronchi. The left bronchus leads to the left lung and the right bronchus leads to the right lung. These breathing tubes continue to divide into smaller and smaller tubes called bronchioles. The bronchioles end in tiny air sacs called alveoli. Alveoli, which means "bunch of grapes" in Italian, look like clusters of grapes attached to tiny breathing tubes. There are over 300 million alveoli in normal lungs. If the alveoli were opened and laid out flat, they would cover the area of a doubles tennis court. Not all alveoli are in use at one time, so that the lung has many to spare in the event of damage from disease, infection or surgery.

Materials:

1. Gloves

2. Inflation rack

3. Inflatable pig lungs

4. Bellows pump

Procedure:

1. Assemble inflation rack

2. Remove pig lungs from the container

3. Grasp the trachea and suspend the lungs from the inflation rack

4. Position the lungs so the are facing forward

5. Firmly connect the bellows pump and inflate and deflate the lungs (careful not to over inflate)

Pictures :