In an urgent state (English urgent - "urgent"), a person needs emergency assistance, because in this case he is threatened with a quick imminent death. This concept is used in all areas of medicine: surgery, cardiology, psychiatry, gynecology, etc. This article will describe the most common emergency conditions.
Acute poisoning
Ingestion of a large dose of a chemical requires immediate medical attention. Most victims of acute poisoning develop respiratory failure, resulting in death. About 250 out of 100,000 people are hospitalized annually with this diagnosis in the United States and Europe. As a comparison, the number of residents affected by myocardial infarction can be given. With this disease, 70-80 out of 100,000 people get to the hospital.
The age of victims of acute poisoning ranges from 13 to 35 years. This urgent condition in 80% of cases occurs by accident, 18% of incidents are suicidal and only 2% are professional injuries.
Most often, women choose suicide as a suicide. Most men enter hospitals with drug or alcohol intoxication. The mortality from poisoning in a hospital does not exceed 3%. Many more people die from intoxication, not having time to seek qualified help.
Heatstroke
This condition is a consequence of overheating of a living body. High air temperature does not allow the body to maintain normal thermoregulation, which leads to serious consequences up to asystole, especially in children and people with cardiovascular diseases.
The following types of heat stroke are available:
- hyperthermic (body temperature exceeds 40 ° C);
- gastroenteric (characterized by dyspepsia);
- cerebral (dominance of neuropsychiatric disorders);
- asphyxial (this type is characterized by body temperature up to 39 ° C and impaired breathing).
In this urgent condition, the patient has dizziness, nausea, redness of the skin, weakness, sleep disturbance, rapid breathing. Severe form of heat stroke is characterized by loss of consciousness, convulsions and hallucinations.
Fainting
It is safe to say that a syncope occurred in the life of half of the adult population of the planet at least once. The first episode most often occurs in people aged 10 to 30 years. The main reason for fainting is the discrepancy between the amount of blood supplied to the brain and its metabolic needs.
In medicine, the following syncope urgent conditions are distinguished:
- reflex (emotional stress);
- fainting caused by orthostatic hypotension (autonomic failure, diabetes, spinal cord injury, bleeding, with excessive use of alcohol, antidepressants, etc.);
- cardiogenic syncope (tachycardia, bradycardia, heart defects, ischemia / myocardial infarction, pulmonary hypertension).
Epileptic seizure
This periodically recurring urgent state causes secondary hyperthermia, cerebral edema, impaired cerebrospinal fluid dynamics, cardiac activity and breathing. Ineffective treatment leads to death within a couple of hours.
The causes of seizures are intracranial tumors, eclampsia and traumatic brain injury. The following solutions provide immediate assistance:
- 40% glucose (10 ml) mixed with 20-60 mg of diazepam (but a quick injection of fluid into a vein causes respiratory arrest!);
- anticonvulsants in the form of 30 ml of a 6% solution of chloral hydrate and starch paste or 0.6 g of barbital (these drugs are administered rectally);
- benzodiazepine tranquilizers, barbiturates and valproates are administered using a nasogastric tube.
Suicidal behavior
Repeated conversations and attempts to reduce scores with life are also included in the list of urgent conditions. Thoughts about death are present in almost all people with mental disabilities. Suicide is especially easy for patients with agitated depression. Such patients need careful monitoring, especially in the morning, because at this time the most dreary mood is noted.
The presence in history of at least one attempt to commit suicide is considered an urgent state in psychiatry, since such situations are repeated again in almost all cases. Men commit suicide three times more often than women, although women have four times more attempts than men. Most cases of completed suicide occur in older people.
A person prone to suicide most often has a pre-designed action plan, which usually does not hide. In addition to depressants, tranquilizers and antipsychotics are prescribed for such patients (Sonapax, Tizercin, Relanium).
In hysterical disorders, patients often, with their characteristic drama at the audience, try to die, although in reality they do not intend to realize this desire. These cases are also an urgent condition, as quick-tempered patients are not able to assess the irreversible consequences of their dangerous actions.
In the behavior of schizophrenics, suicidal tendencies are observed due to hypochondriac delirium and imperative hallucinations. Among patients, there are individuals who often think about deadly experiments. Talk about such things most often begins with the phrases “I wonder what will happen if I ...” and the like. This type of suicide is almost impossible to predict.