What is a moderate condition? We will understand in this article.
The severity of the general condition of the patient is determined depending on the presence and nature of the severity of decompensation of important vital functions of the body. In accordance with this, doctors decide on the urgency of implementation and the required amount of diagnostic and therapeutic measures, determine the indications for hospitalization along with transportability and the likely outcome of the disease. Next, we will talk about assessing the condition of patients in intensive care after surgery, and find out in which cases the well-being of patients refers to a state of moderate severity.
General gradations
In clinical practice, doctors distinguish several gradations of the general condition:
- A satisfactory condition occurs when the functions of important organs are relatively compensated. Usually, the general condition of patients remains satisfactory in the presence of mild forms of the course of the disease.
- The state of moderate severity is indicated in cases where the disease leads to decompensation of the functions of organs important for life, but does not pose a direct danger to the patient's life.
- A serious condition is considered in the case when the decompensation of the functions of organs important for life arising as a result of the disease poses a danger to the patient or is capable of leading to deep disability.
- An extremely serious condition is considered when there are sharp violations of the basic vital functions of the body, against which, without intensive and urgent medical measures, the patient may die within the next few hours or minutes.
- In the terminal state, a complete fading of consciousness is observed, while the muscles in the person are relaxed, and various reflexes disappear.
- The extreme condition is clinical death.
Detailed description
The condition of moderate severity, as noted earlier, is said in cases where the disease leads to decompensation of the functions of important vital organs, but does not pose a danger to human life. A similar general condition in patients is usually observed in diseases that occur with severe objective and subjective manifestations. Patients may complain of intense pain of different localization, and, in addition, pronounced weakness, shortness of breath with moderate physical exertion and dizziness. Consciousness is usually clear, but sometimes stunned.
Physical activity
Motor activity in a moderate condition in a patient is often limited. At the same time, the position of patients in bed is forced or active, but they are quite capable of serving themselves. Various symptoms may be observed in the form of high fever with chills, widespread swelling of the subcutaneous tissue, severe pallor, bright jaundice, moderate cyanosis, or extensive hemorrhagic rashes. When examining the cardiac system, an increase in the number of heart contractions at rest more than one hundred per minute can be detected, or, conversely, sometimes bradycardia with an amount of heart contractions of less than forty per minute is noted. Arrhythmia is also possible along with an increase in blood pressure. What else differs the general state of moderate severity?
Number of respiratory movements
The number of breaths at rest, as a rule, exceeds twenty per minute, a violation of bronchial patency may occur. In addition, there is a failure of patency of the upper respiratory canals. On the part of the digestive system, various signs of local peritonitis are possible along with repeated vomiting, severe diarrhea, and moderate bleeding in the stomach or intestines.
Patients in a moderate state usually require emergency medical care or are prescribed hospitalization, since there is a likelihood of a rapid progression of the disease and the development of dangerous life complications. For example, with hypertensive crisis, myocardial infarction may occur along with acute left ventricular failure or stroke.
Assessment of the general condition of patients
In medicine, it is very important to give an adequate assessment of the patient's condition and his ability to make contact. So, the consciousness in patients can be clear or, conversely, darkened. A sick person may be indifferent, agitated, or euphoric in high spirits. When assessing the general condition and well-being of a patient, a dull consciousness can be characterized by detachment, while a person has an inability to correctly perceive the world around him. Among other things, there is a violation of orientation in space and time, and, in addition, in one's own personality, incoherence of thinking can be observed along with complete or partial amnesia.
Depressed state of health
Depressed well-being of moderate severity in people is characterized by the fact that they still have the opportunity for the functioning of mental activity, however, to a very small extent. In this case, patients can lie still or perform reflex automatic movements, they do not show any signs of normal activity and they do not show any initiative, and, in addition, I do not react to others and what is happening around. However, in the presence of a sharp impact, be it concussion, bright light or noise, such patients can be briefly removed from such a state with the occurrence of a particular reaction. For example, they can open their eyes and point them at an annoying subject. It is also possible to perform one or another movement along with a short answer to the question, after which the person will return to his previous state.
Even in moments of relative clarification, mental activity will be in the nature of extreme automatism and obscurity. Usually, the whole reaction consists in short-term awakening of human attention without returning the patient to the ability to understand and correctly perceive what is happening. In a state of moderate severity, the reflexes in patients are preserved, and swallowing is not impaired, patients can turn independently in bed. Sometimes such a state of health is characterized by stupor, that is, a deep stage of stunning, in which there are no reactions to verbal treatment and only the response to pain stimuli is preserved.
Next, we find out what criteria and indicators specialists are forced to pay attention to when patients are in intensive care.
Resuscitation department: criteria and indicators for assessing the condition of patients
The state of moderate severity in intensive care is a slightly different concept.
Due to the severity of the condition of patients in the intensive care unit, specialists conduct round-the-clock monitoring. Doctors primarily monitor the functioning and performance of vital organs. The following indicators and criteria are usually under strict and basic supervision:
- Blood pressure indicator.
- The degree of blood oxygen saturation.
- An indicator of respiratory rate and heart rate.
In order to determine all of the above criteria and indicators, special equipment is connected to the patient. To stabilize the condition, a person is provided with medication, this is done around the clock, for twenty-four hours. The injection of drugs is carried out through vascular access, for example, through the veins of the neck, hands, subclavian region of the chest, and so on.
What does a moderate condition after surgery mean?
In patients who are in the intensive care unit immediately after the operation, drainage tubes may temporarily remain. They are required to monitor the healing processes of the wound after the operation.
Resuscitation support for patients
The extremely serious condition of the patient suggests the need to attach to it a large number of special medical equipment, which is required to monitor important vital signs. Various medical devices are also used in the form of a urinary catheter, dropper, oxygen mask, and so on.
All these devices are able to significantly limit the motor activity of a person, because of this the patient is simply unable to get out of bed. It is worth noting that excessive activity can result in disconnection from important equipment. For example, as a result of a sharp removal of a dropper, a person may open up severe bleeding, and detaching a pacemaker is all the more dangerous, since it will cause cardiac arrest.
Now we turn to the consideration of criteria for assessing the condition of children.
Determining the condition of the child
Objectively and correctly assessing the state of moderate severity in a newborn is very difficult. This is largely due to the anatomical and physiological characteristics of babies of different gestational age. It can also be associated with the presence of a transient state, and, in addition, with different compensatory capabilities, which largely depends on prenatal development.
The condition of the child of moderate severity is considered satisfactory if there are no dysfunctions of important organs. This condition includes transient indicators of the neonatal period along with prematurity, growth retardation and weight. Babies with mild developmental abnormalities without organ dysfunctions are also considered as patients with a satisfactory condition.
Criteria for determining the condition of the child
It is worth talking about the state of moderate severity in a child in cases where the functional insufficiency of a compromised life support system is able to be compensated by the body itself according to the autoregulation mechanism.
The criteria for the presence of a serious condition in a child include:
- The presence of decompensation of the functions of important organs.
- The presence of multiple organ failure.
- The presence of a risk of death, and, in addition, disability.
- The presence of the effect of ongoing intensive treatment.
The effectiveness of intensive treatment distinguishes severe conditions from critical state of health. For example, a critical condition is characterized by prosthetics of two or more vital functions of the body, and, in addition, a progressive deterioration of the patient's condition, which is observed even despite the therapy.
Conclusion
Thus, at present, the problem of creating integral scales for assessing the severity of general well-being in newborns does not lose its relevance. In practice, the main and basic criterion for assessing the severity of the patient's condition is the degree of clinical severity of the current pathological syndrome. In any case, in the treatment of children and adults, it is important to understand that the criterion for the severity of the condition is a variable value and should be evaluated exclusively in dynamics.
We examined what the condition of a patient of moderate severity means.