Living with asthma

Brief overview

Surgery Door provides a section for people suffering from Asthma and other respiratory disorders to research and learn about their condition. The pages provide access to featured asthma specialists.

The windpipe (trachea) carries each breath of air to the lungs. The trachea divides into two and goes to each lung. Smaller and smaller tubes (airways) carry the air to the tiny spaces in the lungs where oxygen is absorbed into the blood. Asthma is a condition which narrows the small airways in the lungs and makes breathing more difficult. During an attack the muscles in the walls of the airways contract and make the airways narrower. The airways become inflamed and are made narrower still by swelling of its tissues and fluid secretions which line the wall of the tubes.