The duration of hospital stay for pneumonia depends on the age, condition of the body, the degree of lung damage and related diseases.
How to determine the duration of the hospital?
After determining in a hospital with pneumonia, the question arises: how long is it to be in a hospital with pneumonia? This period depends on many factors: the severity of the disease, age, type of infection, concomitant inflammation. For children and the elderly, the duration of treatment is extended at the slightest suspicion of complications.
How much to lie in the hospital with pneumonia is determined by the attending physician on the basis of tests, a picture of the sternum and after assessing the patient's well-being. Inflammation of the sternum takes a long time with proper treatment. But more often, patients seek help already in the period of the advanced stage, when it is required to take potent drugs. After such measures, complications are possible, which are important to notice in the initial period and adjust the ineffective therapy.
Patients may refuse hospitalization, but experienced doctors recognize that pneumonia is a dangerous disease, and for some it can be fatal. Therefore, it is recommended that you follow the doctor's instructions. He will determine how much to stay in the hospital with pneumonia and select the safest medicine. This question is especially relevant when choosing a method of combating illness in newborns and pregnant women.
How do doctors determine the length of hospitalization?
To understand how much to stay in the hospital with pneumonia, you need to familiarize yourself with the medical manual that helps to consistently assess the severity of lung disease. Following the step-by-step instructions, it is possible to avoid an erroneous diagnosis and to carry out resuscitation in time for serious complications. For the analysis, certain criteria are used: the patient’s state of health, the ability to tolerate potent antibiotics. This will help to understand whether there have been noticeable improvements in the treatment process.
How many children are in the hospital with pneumonia depends on the type of inflammation, divided into mild, moderate and severe. Hospitalization is required only in the latter case, but even with the simplest complications, the disease can drag on for a month.
It is quite difficult to determine in the early stages of the disease how many children are in the hospital with pneumonia. The doctor makes a preliminary diagnosis, which can be adjusted according to the results of observations. Early discharge is possible only in the absence of signs of inflammation and positive predictions of health recovery at home.
Methodology for assessing the patient's condition
When answering the question of how much pneumonia is treated in a hospital in adults, it should be noted that such patients have a serious condition and often acquire complications of a different plan. Patients need constant monitoring. In chronic diseases, deterioration of health occurs suddenly. Minutes of inactivity often cause disability, which will require additional strength to recover.
Doctors use the CURB65 standard, which allows you to evaluate the patient's condition in points. The methodology is based on a test consisting in answering questions. A score is put on each answer, the answer is summed up and an approximate estimated characteristic of the patient is obtained. We list the criteria for calculating the result.
Criteria for assessing the condition of the patient
How many days they treat pneumonia in a hospital depends on the answers to the following paragraphs of the instructions:
- Blood pressure is not restored for a long time. It is below normal.
- The level of urea in the blood is estimated, a score is put at values above 7 mmol / L.
- The observed manifests periodic disturbances of consciousness.
- The patient is in old age over 65 years.
With any, even one positive response, the patient should be hospitalized. The instruction allows you to determine whether the patient should be sent to the hospital. The answer to the question of how much pneumonia is treated in the hospital will be provided by the doctor based on the results of observations and analyzes.
Hazardous conditions
How long they spend in the hospital with pneumonia depends on the degree of complication and the type of inflammation. To determine critical conditions, signs of pneumonia are distinguished:
- High body temperature, accompanied by severe intoxication of the body.
- A condition of the disease when inflammation spreads to both lungs.
- Coughing is a clear sign of damage to the larynx and lungs. Severe and neglected conditions are accompanied by purulent sputum.
- Focal inflammation is accompanied by the formation of oxygen deficiency. The frequency of respiration becomes faster, it becomes superficial. The patient's condition is severe when the frequency is 30 cycles per minute.
- The patient has a clouding of consciousness. All this leads to impaired speech, the thought process, it becomes difficult to perform simple household tasks.
- Strong body heat and intoxication cause dehydration.
Hospitalization period
How many days are in the hospital with pneumonia depends on the age of the person. For children and people of advanced years, the terms will be long, as doctors extend the term for fear of missing a developing chronic complication due to pneumonia. An urgent need to be in the hospital occurs in the first few days of the onset of inflammation. At this time, the most severe consequences from the rapid increase in symptoms are possible.
The first days of the disease require bed rest, constant monitoring, emergency medication with a sharp deterioration in well-being. The newcomer is recommended bed rest, any physical activity is excluded. Pneumonia is often accompanied by high body temperature, which they try to remove with medication (only above 39 ° C). This does not apply to newborns and the elderly, as well as people with concomitant diseases.
A long period in a supine position can lead to the formation of pressure sores, the prevention of which should be dealt with constantly. So, patients are recommended to take half-hour walks in the morning and in the evening.
Additional assistance in the hospital
How many adults are in a hospital with pneumonia depends on the preventive actions of the attending physician. To increase immunity and activate forces, inhalations are used that remove sputum and inflammation in the larynx. To reduce intoxication, an abundant drink is prescribed: warm compotes, herbal tea, juices and fruit drinks from freshly squeezed fruits and berries.
Dietary nutrition will help to eliminate the additional burden on the digestive system. Soups, vegetable broths, fish dishes, fresh vegetables are recommended. Oxygen therapy will help maintain O2 balance. In severe cases of shortage of an important element, they resort to ventilation of the lungs.
Diagnosis of patients in a hospital
To exclude erroneous diagnoses and improper medication during treatment, it is recommended to conduct a full examination using modern technical means. First of all, doctors conduct a clinical examination, identify complaints of an incoming person. A preliminary degree of lung damage is established, then an x-ray is taken. As additional methods, magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography can be used.
The diagnosis can be made in the presence of symptoms and radiographs, which happens in most cases. Timely help helps cure pneumonia without complications in a short time. Within 5 days, the patient restores health and can already be discharged from the hospital.
Additional analyzes
As a definition of the patient’s body condition, doctors can resort to additional diagnostics. Blood counts are important: urea level, hepatic components and the amount of electrolytes, the ratio of gaseous substances to the total amount of blood.
Additionally, a study is being conducted on the presence of pneumococci in the body by PCR and the detection of pathogen DNA. It will also be useful to test for L. pneumophila antigens in the urine, as well as conduct immunofluorescence analysis on the bacterium. If the patient’s condition does not normalize, then the doctor conducts the diagnosis at his discretion empirically. Procrastination often causes complications leading to a patient's disability.
Expectorants, painkillers can be used to make you feel better. The appointment of cough blockers is not allowed. Sputum should move out of the lungs. If this does not happen, then fluid will accumulate in the chest organ. Shortness of breath will only worsen the situation.
The average treatment time in the hospital
How much pneumonia is treated in a hospital in children depends on taking antibiotics. Potent drugs are prescribed immediately for suspected severe inflammation of young people and the elderly. This is necessary to exclude the likelihood of a sharp development of complications, which often occurs in babies.
Antibiotics are taken even after feeling better for the complete destruction of microbes in the body. Duration of treatment begins from 7 to 20 days, depending on the condition of the patient and the type of pathogen: with staphylococcus, the drugs are taken for more than 3 weeks, similarly do with legionella; pneumococcal infection requires therapy within 5 days, and with enterobacterial infection and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, tablets are taken for a month.
The method of treatment of the elderly
For people over 60, pneumonia is life threatening. Complications from chronic diseases complement the already unpleasant symptoms. The muscles and tone of the body are weakened, the immune system can no longer resist bacteria as before. Lungs are more vulnerable due to organ tissue aging.
Often, elderly people have poor blood circulation due to an immobile lifestyle. All this imposes restrictions on the choice of medicines. The terms of treatment are much higher than in younger patients. Complications in the lungs can form after a common cold, SARS. Pneumonia develops rapidly, therefore, at the first suspicion of inflammation, a direction about placement in a hospital is immediately written out.
Baby treatment
The danger of developing pneumonia is that there are no pronounced symptoms in the early days of the disease. Newborns and young children are determined in the hospital immediately. Only constant monitoring of the baby will help to avoid the advanced stage of the disease, when resuscitation is already needed.
With viral inflammation, there is no high temperature, the infection does not give cough and sputum at the onset of the disease. And the baby already feels unwell, sleep is disturbed, appetite disappears. How many newborns are in a hospital with pneumonia depends on the decision of the attending physician.
A change in condition can be noticed when detecting shortness of breath, shortness of breath, cough, superficial inspiration. Shaded areas are visible in x-ray photographs. With the croupous form of inflammation, there can be many such points. The prognosis for such patients is positive. After a few days of taking antibiotics, pneumonia disappears.
The conclusion about the cure is made on the basis of the following criteria: smooth breathing, the patient is feeling well, there are no deviations in the sternum photographs. After discharge, it is recommended to re-examine after 2-3 weeks to confirm the results of treatment. If necessary, therapy is repeated using other drugs.
A person with pneumonia is not recommended to contact healthy people. Bacteria are transmitted along with saliva when coughing, so relatives can become infected.