Expiration
The respiratory muscles during a "calm" breathing cycle. The inspiration (inhalation) on the left side of the picture, the expiration (exhalation) on the right side. The contracting muscles are shown in red, the relaxed ones are shown in blue.
In medicine, expiration or exhalation is the process of exhalation (the phase of lung ventilation ).
By relaxing the chest muscles and the diaphragm cause the elastic restoring forces of the lungs and thorax , that the lung volume reduced passive. The air is pressed out of the lungs accordingly.
Exhalation is actively supported by the inner intercostal muscles , which, when contracting, lower the ribs or the chest and thus allow the lungs to contract. Additional auxiliary respiratory muscles are used in forced exhalation (powerful, intensified breathing), e.g. B. in diseases of the lungs or cough (see cough muscles ), during physical exertion, or when speaking and singing.
Individual evidence
- ↑ expiration . In: symptomat.de . November 13, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2017.