Emphysema

Your lungs have millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. When you breathe in, they fill with air and when you breathe out, they empty. Oxygen is taken up through the thin walls of these air sacs into your bloodstream. Cigarette smoke and other harmful substances you breathe in can damage the walls of these air sacs.

The millions of air sacs that make up healthy lungs are springy and elastic like a sponge. Emphysema develops when the walls of these tiny air sacs get damaged. They break apart and merge into each other, creating holes in your lung.

You might find it uncomfortable to breathe with emphysema as your chest becomes hyperinflated. This is when the damaged parts of your lungs become baggy and trap air. This means when you breathe in, the damaged part of your lung inflates more and can get in the way of the healthier parts of your lung.

Damage from emphysema means that there is less space on the surface of your air sacs for gas exchange. This is the process where oxygen is taken up into your bloodstream.

Our information about diagnosing, managing and treating COPD applies to all types of COPD, including emphysema. For some people with emphysema, lung volume reduction procedures can be an effective treatment too.

What are the different types of emphysema?

Sometimes, healthcare professionals might use different terms to describe your emphysema, especially if you have had a CT scan of your chest: 

• Bullous emphysema. Holes in the lung bigger than 1cm are called bullae. Bullous emphysema means that there are a lot of these large holes visible on your scan.
• Homogenous emphysema. This means that the emphysema is evenly distributed across your lungs.
• Heterogeneous emphysema. This means that there is more damage in some parts of the lungs and less in others, so the pattern is uneven.