What is a moderate condition? Let's figure it out in this article.
The severity of the patient's general condition is determined depending on the presence and severity of decompensation of important vital functions of the body. In accordance with this, doctors decide on the urgency of the implementation and the required volume of diagnostic and therapeutic measures, determine the indications for hospitalization along with transportability and the likely outcome of the disease. Next, let's talk about assessing the condition of patients in intensive care after surgery, and find out in which cases the patients' well-being refers to a state of moderate severity.
Gradations of general condition
In clinical practice, doctors distinguish several gradations of general condition:
- Satisfactory condition occurs when the functions of important organs are relatively compensated. Usually general conditionpatients remains satisfactory in the presence of mild forms of the disease.
- A state of moderate severity is said in cases where the disease leads to decompensation of the functions of vital organs, but does not pose an immediate danger to the patient's life.
- A serious condition is considered when the resulting decompensation of the functions of important organs for life poses a danger to the patient or can lead 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 extinction of consciousness is observed, while the muscles of the person are relaxed, and various reflexes disappear.
- The extreme condition is clinical death.
Detailed description
A state 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 pronounced 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. Consciousnesswhile usually clear, but sometimes deafened.
Motor activity
Motor activity in a state of moderate severity 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. There may be various symptoms in the form of high fever with chills, widespread edema of the subcutaneous tissue, severe pallor, bright jaundice, moderate cyanosis, or extensive hemorrhagic rashes. In the study of the cardiac system, an increase in the number of heartbeats at rest more than one hundred per minute can be detected, or, conversely, bradycardia is sometimes noted with a number of heartbeats less than forty per minute. Arrhythmia is also possible along with an increase in blood pressure. What else is different about the general condition of moderate severity?
Number of breaths
The number of breaths at rest, as a rule, exceeds twenty per minute, there may be a violation of bronchial patency. In addition, there is a failure of the 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, the presence of moderate bleeding in the stomach or intestines.
Patients in a state of moderate severity usually require emergency medical care or they are prescribed hospitalization, as there is a possibility of rapid progression of the disease and the development of life-threatening complications. Tofor example, in a hypertensive crisis, myocardial infarction may occur along with acute left ventricular failure or stroke.
Evaluation 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 of patients can be clear or, conversely, clouded. A sick person may be indifferent, agitated, or euphoric in high spirits. When assessing the general condition and well-being of the patient, the clouded consciousness can be characterized by detachment, while the person has the 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.
Feeling depressed
Depressed state of he alth of moderate severity in people is characterized by the fact that they retain the opportunity for the functioning of mental activity, however, to a very small extent. At the same time, patients can lie still or perform automatic reflex movements, they do not show any signs of normal activity and they do not show any initiative, and, moreover, do not react to others and to what is happening around. True, in the presence of a sharp impact, whether it be a concussion, bright light or noise, such patients can be taken out of this state for a short time with the occurrence of one or another reaction. For example, they can open their eyes and directthem to an annoying object. 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 the previous state.
Even in moments of relative clarity, mental activity will have the character of extreme automaticity and obscurity. Usually the whole reaction consists in a 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, reflexes in patients are preserved, and swallowing is not disturbed in any way, patients can independently turn in bed. Sometimes such a state of he alth is characterized by sopor, that is, a deep stage of stunning, in which there are no reactions to verbal appeals at all and only a response to painful stimuli remains.
Next, we will find out what criteria and indicators specialists are forced to pay attention to when patients are in intensive care.
Intensive care unit: criteria and indicators for assessing the condition of patients
A moderate condition 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 organs important for life. The following indicators and criteria are usually under strict and basic supervision:
- Blood pressure reading.
- The degree of oxygen saturation in the blood.
- Respiratory rate and heart rate.
In order to determine all the above criteria and indicators, special equipment is connected to the patient. To stabilize the condition, a person is provided with the introduction of medicines, this is done around the clock, for twenty-four hours. Drugs are administered through vascular access, for example, through the veins of the neck, arms, subclavian region of the chest, and so on.
What does moderate condition mean after surgery?
Patients who are in the intensive care unit immediately after surgery may have temporary drainage tubes. They are required to monitor the wound healing processes after the operation.
Support for patients in intensive care
The extremely serious condition of the patient implies the need to attach to him a large amount of special medical equipment, which is required to monitor important vital signs. They also use various medical devices in the form of a urinary catheter, dropper, oxygen mask, and so on.
All these devices are capable of significantly limiting a person's motor activity, because of this, the patient is simply unable to get out of bed. It is worth noting that excessive activity may result in disconnection from important equipment. For example, as a result of abrupt withdrawal of an IV, a person may bleed heavily, and disconnectionpacemaker is all the more dangerous as it will cause cardiac arrest.
Now let's move on to considering the criteria for assessing the condition of children.
Determination of a child's condition
It is very difficult to objectively and correctly assess the state of moderate severity in a newborn. This is largely due to the anatomical and physiological characteristics of babies of different gestational ages. Also, this may be due to the presence of a transient state, and, in addition, with different compensatory possibilities, which largely depends on prenatal development.
The condition of a child of moderate severity is considered satisfactory if there are no violations of the functions of important organs. This condition includes transient indicators of the neonatal period, along with prematurity, growth retardation and weight. Babies with mild developmental anomalies without organ dysfunction are also considered patients with a satisfactory condition.
Criteria for determining a child's condition
A state of moderate severity in a child should be discussed in cases where the functional insufficiency of a compromised life support system can be compensated by the body itself through the mechanism of autoregulation.
The criteria for a child to have a serious condition include:
- The presence of decompensation of the functions of important organs.
- Presence of multiple organ failure.
- The presence of a risk of death, and, in addition, disability.
- Presencethe effect of ongoing intensive treatment.
The effectiveness of intensive treatment distinguishes severe conditions from critical he alth. For example, a critical condition is characterized by the prosthesis of two or more vital functions of the body, and, in addition, a progressive deterioration in the patient's condition, which is observed even despite ongoing therapy.
Conclusion
Thus, at present, the problem of creating integrated 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, when treating 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 looked at what a moderate patient condition means.
