In an urgent condition (English urgent - "immediate"), a person needs emergency help, because in this case he is threatened with a quick inevitable 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. In the US and Europe, about 250 out of 100,000 people are hospitalized with this diagnosis each year. As a comparison, we can cite the number of residents affected by myocardial infarction. With this disease, 70-80 out of 100,000 people end up in the hospital.
The age of victims of acute poisoning ranges from 13 to 35 years. This urgent condition in 80% of caseshappens by accident, 18% of accidents are suicidal and only 2% are occupational injuries.
Most often, poisoning as suicide is chosen by women. Most men end up in hospitals with drug or alcohol intoxication. Mortality from poisoning in a hospital does not exceed 3%. Many more people die from intoxication before they can seek qualified help.
Heatstroke
This state is the result of overheating of the 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.
There are the following types of heatstroke:
- hyperthermic (body temperature over 40°C);
- gastroenteric (characterized by dyspepsia);
- cerebral (dominance of neuropsychiatric disorders);
- asphyctic (this type is characterized by body temperature up to 39 ° C and impaired breathing).
In this urgent condition, the patient experiences dizziness, nausea, skin redness, weakness, sleep disturbance, rapid breathing. The severe form of heat stroke is characterized by loss of consciousness, convulsions and hallucinations.
Faint
It's safe to say that syncope has happened at least once in the life of half of the adult population of the planet. The first episode most often occurs in people between the ages of 10 and 30. The main cause of fainting ismismatch between the amount of blood supplied to the brain and its metabolic needs.
In medicine, the following syncopal urgent conditions are distinguished:
- reflex (emotional stress);
- fainting caused by orthostatic hypotension (vegetative failure, diabetes, spinal cord injury, bleeding, excessive use of alcohol, antidepressants, etc.);
- cardiogenic syncope (tachycardia, bradycardia, heart defects, ischemia/myocardial infarction, pulmonary hypertension).
Epileptic seizure
This periodically recurring urgent condition causes secondary hyperthermia, cerebral edema, impaired liquorodynamics, cardiac activity and respiration. Ineffective treatment leads to death within just a couple of hours.
The cause of seizures are intracranial tumors, eclampsia and traumatic brain injury. The following solutions provide immediate relief:
- 40% glucose (10ml) mixed with 20-60mg of diazepam (but rapid infusion 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 via a nasogastric tube.
Suicidal behavior
Repeated conversations and attempts to commit suicide are also on the listurgent states. Thoughts of death are present in almost all people with mental disabilities. Suicide is especially easy for patients with agitated depression. Such patients need close supervision, especially in the morning, as this is the time of the most dreary mood.
Having a history of at least one suicide attempt is considered an urgent condition in psychiatry, since such situations in almost all cases are repeated again. Men commit suicide three times more often than women, although the fair sex makes four times more attempts than men. Most cases of completed suicide occur among the elderly.
A person who is suicidal most often has a premeditated plan of action, which he usually does not hide. In addition to depressants, such patients are prescribed tranquilizers and antipsychotics (Sonapax, Tizercin, Relanium).
With hysterical disorders, patients often, with their characteristic drama in front of the audience, try to die, although in reality they do not intend to realize this desire at all. These cases are also an urgent condition, since irascible patients are not able to appreciate the irreversible consequences of their dangerous actions.
In the behavior of schizophrenics, suicidal tendencies are observed due to hypochondriacal delusions and imperative hallucinations. Among patients there are personalities who often think about fatalexperiments. Conversations about such things most often begin with the phrases “I wonder what will happen if I …” and the like. This type of suicide is almost impossible to predict.
