
Is the character of breath sounds normal or abnormal?.Is the intensity of breath sounds high, normal, or low?.While performing auscultation, we need to answer THREE simple questions: It will be a paradox if we expect that patient to breathe harder for a long time! Remember that we tend to examine the respiratory system of a patient in great detail only when we suspect that he has a respiratory disease. Requests for deep breathing should be as infrequent as possible, as they can tire the patient.


We can easily carry out auscultation while the patient is breathing normally. If the patient’s chest is hairy, then moistening that chest with warm water might be helpful. This avoidance is to prevent friction sounds that may confuse. We should avoid auscultation through clothes as far as possible. The stethoscope should be preferably touching the patient’s bare skin.However, we can examine the anterior regions even when the patient is lying down. Preferably in a sitting position, so that all the areas of the chest are accessible for examination. The patient should be in the proper position during auscultation.A quiet environment is desirable as it makes it easier to listen to breath sounds.Let us start by looking at some requirements for effective auscultation: I have used a Littmann 3200 electronic stethoscope for recording most of the breath sounds. Please use headphones for a stethoscope-like experience. Please explore all the audio examples included in this page. You will find the description of various respiratory auscultation findings with audio examples in this article. Auscultation of breath sounds is one of the most essential and useful clinical techniques for evaluating a patient’s respiratory pathology.
