Hypoxia and Medicine

What is the difference between asphyxia and hypoxia?

Both mean that there is not a sufficient supply of oxygen being given but what is the difference and if there is no difference, why use two different words for the same thing?

Public Comments

1. Asphyxia is death caused by lack of oxygen...i.e. smothering. Hypoxia is the lack of an adequate amount of oxygen in the blood. This happens at high altitudes most of the time.
2. Asphyxia can be caused by injury to or obstruction of breathing passageways, as in strangulation or the aspiration of food (choking) or large quantities of fluid (near-drowning or drowning). The aspiration of food or fluid can result in a shrunken and airless state of the lungs that is known as atelectasis, a condition that aggravates hypoxemia. Asphyxia can also be caused by suffocation, the inability of sufficient oxygen to reach the brain, as in carbon monoxide poisoning. Hypoxia / hypoxemia is a condition in which there is an inadequate supply of oxygen in the blood. Hypoxia is caused by: A reduction in partial pressure of oxygen Inadequate oxygen transport The inability of the tissues to use oxygen
3. asphyxia: the extreme condition caused by lack of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide in the blood, produced by interference with respiration or insufficient oxygen in the air; suffocation. > leads to loss of consciousness or death Hypoxia: inadequate oxygenation of the blood. >