Respiratory Acidosis

To understand when to seek care, it helps to know that respiratory acidosis is a disturbance of the blood's acid-base balance that occurs when the lungs do not remove enough carbon dioxide, which makes it more acidic than normal.

Common causes: It can be related to lung diseases that limit breathing, to depression of the respiratory center, or to situations that hinder gas exchange.

Common symptoms: Sometimes it presents with fatigue, drowsiness, confusion, difficulty breathing, or headache, depending on how quickly it sets in.

Which specialist treats it? It is usually evaluated by the internist, the emergency physician, or the specialist in critical care and intensive care medicine. If serious breathing problems appear, it is important to evaluate them without delay with medical staff.