Hypoxia: Causes, Symptoms, Tests, Diagnosis & Treatment

What is Hypoxia?

Hypoxia occurs when the tissues in your body don't get enough oxygen. When you breathe, oxygen enters your lungs where it passes through your airways and into tiny sacs called alveoli before leaving your body. Your blood picks it up from there in tiny channels that move close to the alveoli (capillaries). Ultimately, it goes through your blood out to different tissues.

 Causes of Hypoxia

Hypoventilation, ventilation-perfusion mismatch, low air oxygen content, right-to-left shunting, or impeded diffusion are some of the traditional causes of hypoxia.

Most frequently, an underlying ailment interferes with breathing or blood flow and causes hypoxia. These conditions may include asthma, bronchitis, sleep apnea, and pneumonia, among others.

Symptoms of Hypoxia

Depending on the intensity, underlying cause, and affected body areas, hypoxia manifests itself in a variety of ways. You can feel like you can't breathe or think clearly when your oxygen levels are low. Some signs of hypoxia include the following:

• Restlessness
• Headache
• Confusion
• Anxiety
• Quick heartbeat (tachycardia)
• Quick breathing (tachypnea)
• Respiratory issues or lack of breath (dyspnea)
• Sluggish heartbeat (bradycardia)
• Extreme agitation
• Cyanosis (Bluish discoloration to the skin)

 Types of Hypoxia

For healthy lung functioning and for oxygen to reach the cells in your tissues, you would need sufficient oxygen levels in the air you breathe. Moreover, circulatory and cardiac health are necessary for delivering oxygen-rich blood to your tissues so are sufficient red blood cells to carry oxygen.

Each of the four forms of hypoxia is brought on by a deficiency of oxygen in one of the regions mentioned above.

• Hypoxemic Hypoxia

Hypoxemic hypoxia, the most typical type of hypoxia, can result from low blood oxygen levels (hypoxemia). Lung and heart conditions, congenital cardiac problems, and drugs that slow breathing can all contribute to hypoxemia. Hypoxemia can also result when ascending to a high altitude, where oxygen concentrations are lower.

• Circulatory Hypoxia

If the heart is not pumping enough blood or if a blood vessel is blocked, even though your blood contains enough oxygen, it may not reach your tissues. The term for this is circulatory hypoxia (also called stagnant hypoxia or ischemia hypoxia). The risk of circulatory hypoxia may increase if you have blood clots or congestive heart failure.

• Anemic Hypoxia

When there are insufficient red blood cells to transport oxygen from your lungs to other tissues, anemic hypoxia occurs. If your body produces too few or abnormally shaped red blood cells, you could become anemic.

• Histotoxic Hypoxia

When your cells are unable to use oxygen effectively, histotoxic hypoxia occurs. In this situation, you can have a lot of oxygen entering your blood and your lungs. However, something prevents your cells from using it when it reaches your tissues. With cyanide poisoning, this is possible.