If a person has a clear consciousness during vigorous activity, this means that the brain is functioning normally. With his well-coordinated work, the citizen will alternate periods of activity and rest, which cannot be said about people with disorders such as stupor, stupor, coma and the like.
Some painful processes in the body lead to confusion, up to its complete absence. It should be noted that in this case it does not change, but is simply violated. One of these conditions is stupor. If such a disorder occurs, then you should immediately consult a doctor to find out the truth of the reason for it, in order to eliminate it.
Why is there a disorder of consciousness
Let's consider in detail what a stupor is. This is a sign by which one can suspect problems in the functioning of the brain due to the dominance of the inhibitory effect of the reticular formation. How does this disorder manifest itself?
Reasons for stupor:
- Damage to the nerve tissue.
- Lack of oxygen in the brain.
- Exposure to a variety of substances leading to impaired consciousness.
What conditions can trigger this disorder?
These include:
- Sopor after a stroke is in the first place. The situation is complicated if it occurs in the upper part of the brain.
- Severe hypertensive crises.
- Head injuries that lead to blood clots and damage to nerve tissue.
- Endocrine diseases and disorders.
- Brain tumors.
- Metabolic problems with hepatic or renal failure.
- Subarachnoid circulation with rupture of arachnoid space.
- Exposure of carbon monoxide to the brain for a long time.
- Inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system caused by infectious agents.
- Blood poisoning.
- Disorder of electrolyte and water metabolism.
- Severe heart failure.
- Sunstroke or low temperature.
Signs of Sopor
A person in this state seems to be sleeping, does not react to anything except the strongest irritants. Hearing a very sharp sound, he wakes up, but the eyeballs look at one point, there are no movements. If you press on the nail plate, the patient pulls his hand. If the patient is given an injection in this condition, patted on the cheek or caused pain in another way, this will lead to a negative, but short-term reaction. In a patient with a frustrated consciousness, stupor can lead to abuse and even a pugnacious state.
On examination, reduced muscle tone and inhibition of deep reflexes are revealed. Pupils practically do not react to light, the corneal reflex and swallowing movements, fortunately, are not disturbed.
Along with this, manifestations of neurology can be revealed, talking about local damage to some structures and parts of the brain. The state of stupor after a stroke will be manifested by stiff neck and meningeal symptoms. Sometimes convulsive seizures, involuntary muscle twitches occur.
Hyperkinetic stupor is much less common. This is when a person has delusions, chaotic movements occur, he does not understand what they want from him, speech is slurred and it is not clear to whom it is addressed.
If a stroke occurs, then in a soporous state, a typical picture is observed:
- A man wants to sleep and looks tired.
- A response to pain stimuli is present.
- He doesn’t answer questions, he’s not oriented in the situation.
- If there is a sharp sound stimulus, then the eyes open by themselves.
- Hypotonic muscle.
- Tendon reflexes are blunted.
- Man is depressed.
- Coordination of movements.
I must say that in a normal state a person has a constant brain activity. It is either decreasing or growing again. With a sopor, a person seems to sleep. In simple terms, he is not capable of making decisions, and even extreme circumstances cannot change anything. This condition is a danger to the patient and those around him. At the same time, activity and sleep in a patient can dramatically replace each other.
The part of the brain that activates the activity is located very deep in the cerebral cortex. Consequently, if its work is disturbed, the signals from the sensory and perceptual organs do not reach the part that is responsible for all this, as a result, consciousness becomes confused. And this is fraught with fainting conditions, observed arbitrarily. Shutdown periods can be short-lived. But after one of them, a person can fall into a coma. And what is this condition?
Coma is a complete depression of the central nervous system, in which in the clinical picture there is a loss of consciousness, there is no reaction to irritation, vital functions are impaired.
Recall what a stupor is. This is the complete extinction of the arbitrary activity of consciousness.
The patient perceives the environment blurry, incomprehensible, even hallucinations and delusions may be present. The patient is disoriented, confuses dates and names, does not remember what he had breakfast today. But very clearly talks about stories that happened in the past. To all this, after a stroke, there is either a high degree of anxiety, or apathy to what is happening around.
Sometimes it occurs with stupor "locked man syndrome." With him, a person retains consciousness and the ability to think, but his body refuses to listen, there is a kind of paralysis.
Diagnostic measures for sopor
Sopor, coma and stunning are completely different mental disorders. Therefore, in case of impaired consciousness, first of all, it is necessary to differentiate the listed states from each other.
The main examination is aimed at identifying the main cause of one of the disorders and the concomitant shifts in metabolic processes.
It is extremely important for the doctor to find out as much data as possible that precedes the current state.
To do this, it is important to study all the patient’s medical documentation and have a conversation with relatives accompanying him. A study of the bag and personal clothing of a sick person. Often this helps to find certain drugs that could lead to a condition that characterizes stupor. Sopor also requires screening research methods.
How to diagnose?
It is necessary:
- Inspect the patient's body for: damage, rash, hemorrhage, injection marks.
- Take an analysis for the presence of alcohol in the urine.
- Measure blood pressure.
- Measure the patient’s body temperature.
- Determine blood sugar.
- Do electrocardiography and auscultation.
Stupor, or stunning, is characterized by a state of half-wakefulness. At the same time, the degree of severity of the interaction of thoughts and actions due to gross attention disorders is lost in a person, partially or completely, drowsiness is observed.
Normal stunning needs to be distinguished from delirium tremens. In the second case, stunning is combined with motor excitement, delirium and hallucinations, as well as activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Signs of deep sopor
With a coma and deep stiffness, the following symptoms are observed:
- Impaired consciousness.
- Respiratory disorders up to oppression.
- Pupils do not react to light.
- Violation of eye movement when lifting the eyelids.
- There may be epileptic seizures.
- Muscle twitching.
- Involuntary movements, similar to arbitrary.
- Sharp tensions or, conversely, muscle relaxation.
At the same time, blood tests for biochemistry and electrolyte levels are taken. If a person has poisoning, then blood is needed for toxicology and urine for the presence of narcotic substances. It happens that an MRI and lumbar puncture is required.
First aid for impaired consciousness
How to carry it out? It is necessary:
- Make an ambulance call.
- Collect family history data for a probable diagnosis.
- Measure blood pressure, respiratory rate, PS, temperature, and blood glucose if you have a blood glucose meter.
- Examine the skin, eye strain and tone of the extremities, the size of the pupils and the reaction to light.
- In / in, introduce 60 ml of 40% glucose with 100 mg of vitamin B1.
The principles of treatment of sopor
Recall again what a stupor is. This is a profound violation of consciousness with the loss of voluntary and the preservation of some reflex activity. So, therapy should be aimed at eliminating the root cause, which led to depression of consciousness. This must be done as quickly as possible.
The development of sopor is often preceded by ischemic disease and edema of brain tissue, which can be observed with various pathologies. If treatment is started quickly, then the disorder will pass faster. Nerve cells located in the vicinity of the lesion in the brain are very often affected. With the wrong treatment, the symptoms will intensify due to damage and further death of neurons in the indicated zone. With this combination of circumstances, the stupor can turn into a coma, and neurological disorders will be pronounced.
The main goal of treatment is to eliminate hydrocephalus and restore normal blood circulation in the brain. Heart rhythm disturbances are also eliminated, and doctors begin to treat kidney and liver failure. In the presence of infections, a course of antibacterial therapy is carried out, bleeding must be eliminated.
The prognosis after treatment
The further prognosis after sopor depends on the cause that caused it, the degree of damage to the nervous tissue and therapeutic measures. The sooner the root cause of the disorder is discovered and all the necessary medical interventions are performed, the higher the chance of a speedy recovery and normalization of a person’s usual activity.
Stroke in stroke
The combination of stroke and stupor affects the state of the human body very badly. With a second disorder, hemorrhagic stroke is usually observed. All this is fraught with a coma.
Sopor, like any other pathology, requires timely diagnosis and treatment. If this is not done, then the health of the person is in great danger, even death.
Little conclusion
Now you know what characterizes such a condition as stupor. What is this in medicine, we have also examined in some detail. Therefore, if you encounter this disorder in your life, you will know what to do next and will not begin to sound the alarm prematurely, but will competently approach the treatment of the disease.