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Airways or air passages blocked can be a very scary situation. When we are deprived of food or water, the discomfort is minimal and slowly progresses as days or weeks go on. But with acute air deprivation, the discomfort is instant and severe, not to mention life threatening within seconds. So the urgent question is how airway obstruction develops. This question is best answered now than in times of emergency.

Basically, when the upper airway is blocked by a foreign matter or any internal inflammation, air passage is constricted and that's how airway obstruction develops. The air obstruction could be in the trachea area or the trachea itself, or the laryngeal (voice box) or the pharyngeal (throat) areas.

Airway obstructions may be caused by several inflammatory factors, like viral and bacterial infections, for instance, or fire or inhalation burns, or burns and reactions chemically induced. Or, most commonly, reactions caused by certain allergens, or even those caused by trauma---such as shock causing swallowed food to be stuck. Such obstructions may completely block the airways or partial obstruct the same. This starts how airway obstruction develops.

Partial obstruction induces partial air blockade in the airways, while complete obstruction---which often creates prolonged obstruction problems and oxygen deprivation---may result to a deathly bluish discoloration of the face. This means oxygen is being deprived the blood, and a severe lack of oxygen in the blood circulation is how airway obstruction develops brain and other organ malfunction. This is not to mention how airway obstruction develops rapid lethal breakdown of lung functions. Immediately, disorientation occurs, or in more serious cases, unconsciousness. If not immediately remedied, harrowing death is how airway obstruction develops and ends.

Acute air passage obstruction symptoms are easy to diagnose. Sudden and dramatic difficulty of breathing is one, or excessive choking that turns the person blue and desperately gasping for air. In contrast, chronic airway difficulty is mostly gradual in nature and produces a partial effect on the airways. Asthma falls in this category. So may severe tonsillitis. This is how airway obstruction develops initially in asthma cases: An allergen is inhaled or introduced into the nasal airways and down the trachea areas. The allergens trigger a respiratory allergic reaction and the first signs of difficulty manifests in the breathing.

Choking is also one way how airway obstruction develops. When foreign matters enter the trachea pipe instead of the esophagus, and vice versa, choking occurs.

It is important to know now how airway obstruction develops than to wait for it to happen.