Reexpansion pulmonary edema or RPE are terms used to describe the condition where after a lung has been collapsed from more than several days it will be rapidly reexpanded and this associated with pulmonary edema that is associated with the reexpanded lungs. According to reports it has been found there expansion pulmonary edema is a type of permeability pulmonary edema that may be caused due to an internal injury in the pulmonary micro vessels.
A major indication of this characteristic is that the sputum of the patient will have a high concentration of protein that is associated with reexpansion pulmonary edema. Extensive research in being conducted in order to explain the pathogenesis of reexpansion pulmonary edema. In case the period of lung collapse is less than three days or if it is more than three days it is very unlikely that RPE make take place in the collapsed lungs.
But there is one particular attribute of the reexpansion pulmonary edema that surprises both clinicians as well as researches. According to them this form of pulmonary edema occurs at various places even where there is no evidence of lung collapse. It is important to understand the histology of the pulmonary micro vessels as it aids in understanding the process of RPE.