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Paradoxical Breathing
Flail chest is a life-threatening medical condition that occurs when a segment of the rib cage breaks due to trauma and becomes detached from the rest of the chest wall. Two of the symptoms of flail chest are chest pain and shortness of breath. It occurs when multiple adjacent ribs are broken in multiple places, separating a segment, so a part of the chest wall moves independently. The number of ribs that must be broken varies by differing definitions: some sources say at least two adjacent ribs are broken in at least two places, some require three or more ribs in two or more places. The flail segment moves in the opposite direction to the rest of the chest wall: because of the ambient pressure in comparison to the pressure inside the lungs, it goes in while the rest of the chest is moving out, and vice versa. This so-called "paradoxical breathing" is painful and increases the work involved in breathing. Flail chest is usually accompanied by a pulmonary contusion, a bruise of ...
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Elderly
Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological stage: the chronological age denoted as "old age" varies culturally and historically. Some disciplines and domains focus on the aging and the aged, such as the organic processes of aging ( senescence), medical studies of the aging process (gerontology), diseases that afflict older adults ( geriatrics), technology to support the aging society (gerontechnology), and leisure and sport activities adapted to older people (such as senior sport). Older people often have limited regenerative abilities and are more susceptible to illness and injury than younger adults. They face social problems related to retirement, loneliness, and ageism. In 2011, the United Nations proposed a human-rights convention to protect old people. History European T ...
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Tracheal Intubation
Tracheal intubation, usually simply referred to as intubation, is the placement of a flexible plastic catheter, tube into the vertebrate trachea, trachea (windpipe) to maintain an open airway or to serve as a conduit through which to administer certain drugs. It is frequently performed in critically injured, ill, or anesthetized patients to facilitate Ventilation (physiology), ventilation of the lungs, including mechanical ventilation, and to prevent the possibility of asphyxiation or airway obstruction. The most widely used route is orotracheal, in which an tracheal tube, endotracheal tube is passed through the mouth and larynx, vocal apparatus into the trachea. In a nasotracheal procedure, an endotracheal tube is passed through the nose and vocal apparatus into the trachea. Other methods of intubation involve surgery and include the cricothyrotomy (used almost exclusively in emergency circumstances) and the tracheotomy, used primarily in situations where a prolonged need for air ...
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Pulmonary Toilet
Pulmonary hygiene, also referred to as pulmonary toilet, is a set of methods used to clear mucus and secretions from the airways. The word ''pulmonary'' refers to the lungs. The word ''toilet'', related to the French ''toilette'', refers to body care and hygiene; this root is used in words such as ''toiletry'' that also relate to cleansing. Respiratory health (pulmonary hygiene) depends on consistent clearance of airway secretions. Normal airway clearance is accomplished by two important mechanisms: the mucociliary clearance system and the ability to cough. Impaired mucociliary clearance is linked to poor lung function in a broad range of diseases and disabilities. Pulmonary hygiene prevents atelectasis (the collapse of the alveoli of the lungs) and rids the respiratory system of secretions, which could cause respiratory infections. It can also decrease pulmonary shunting, increase the functional reserve capacity of the lungs, and prevent respiratory infection after chest trau ...
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Chest Tube
A chest tube (also chest drain, thoracic catheter, tube thoracostomy or intercostal drain) is a drain (surgery), surgical drain that is inserted through the chest wall and into the pleural space or the Mediastinum. The insertion of the tube is sometimes a lifesaving procedure. The tube can be used to remove clinically undesired substances such as air (pneumothorax), excess fluid (pleural effusion or hydrothorax), blood (hemothorax), chyle (chylothorax) or pus (empyema) from the intrathoracic space. An intrapleural chest tube is also known as a Bülau drain or an intercostal catheter (ICC), and can either be a thin, flexible silicone tube (known as a "pigtail" drain), or a larger, semi-rigid, fenestrated plastic tube, which often involves a flutter valve or trap (plumbing), underwater seal. The concept of chest drainage was first advocated by Hippocrates when he described the treatment of empyema by means of incision, cautery and insertion of metal tubes. However, the technique was ...
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Barotrauma
Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between a gas space inside, or in contact with, the body and the surrounding gas or liquid. The initial damage is usually due to over-stretching the tissues in tension or shear, either directly by an expansion of the gas in the closed space or by pressure difference hydrostatically transmitted through the tissue. Tissue rupture may be complicated by the introduction of gas into the local tissue or circulation through the initial trauma site, which can cause blockage of circulation at distant sites or interfere with the normal function of an organ by its presence. The term is usually applied when the gas volume involved already exists prior to decompression. Barotrauma can occur during both compression and decompression events. Barotrauma generally manifests as sinus or middle ear effects, lung overpressure injuries and injuries resulting from external squeezes. Decompression sickness is indir ...
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Oxygenation (medical)
Oxygen saturation is the fraction of oxygen-saturated haemoglobin relative to total haemoglobin (unsaturated + saturated) in the blood. The human body requires and regulates a very precise and specific balance of oxygen in the blood. Normal arterial blood oxygen saturation levels in humans are 96–100 percent. If the level is below 90 percent, it is considered low and called hypoxemia. Arterial blood oxygen levels below 80 percent may compromise organ function, such as the brain and heart, and should be promptly addressed. Continued low oxygen levels may lead to respiratory or cardiac arrest. Oxygen therapy may be used to assist in raising blood oxygen levels. Oxygenation occurs when oxygen molecules () enter the tissues of the body. For example, blood is oxygenated in the lungs, where oxygen molecules travel from the air and into the blood. Oxygenation is commonly used to refer to medical oxygen saturation. Definition In medicine, oxygen saturation, commonly referred to as ...
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Tidal Volume
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles TidalCycles (also known as Tidal) is a live coding environment which is designed for improvising and composing music. Technically, it is a domain-specific language embedded in the functional programming language Haskell, and is focused on the g ..., a live coding environment for music * Tidal (service), a music streaming service * '' Tidal: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy'', a magazine associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement See also * Tidal flow (traffic), the flow of traffic thought of as an analogy with the flow of tides * Tidal force, a secondary effect of the force of gravity and is responsible for the tides * Tidal power, energy harnessed by converting energy from tides * Tide (other) {{disambiguation ...
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Ventilation (physiology)
Breathing (spiration or ventilation) is the rhythmical process of moving air into ( inhalation) and out of ( exhalation) the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly to flush out carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen. All aerobic creatures need oxygen for cellular respiration, which extracts energy from the reaction of oxygen with molecules derived from food and produces carbon dioxide as a waste product. Breathing, or external respiration, brings air into the lungs where gas exchange takes place in the alveoli through diffusion. The body's circulatory system transports these gases to and from the cells, where cellular respiration takes place. The breathing of all vertebrates with lungs consists of repetitive cycles of inhalation and exhalation through a highly branched system of tubes or airways which lead from the nose to the alveoli. The number of respiratory cycles per minute is the breathing or respiratory rate, and is one of the fou ...
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Advanced Trauma Life Support
Advanced trauma life support (ATLS) is a training program for medical providers in the management of acute Trauma (medicine), trauma cases, developed by the American College of Surgeons. Similar programs exist for immediate care providers such as paramedics. The program has been adopted worldwide in over 60 countries, sometimes under the name of Early Management of Severe Trauma, especially outside North America. Its goal is to teach a simplified and standardized approach to trauma patients. Originally designed for emergency situations where only one doctor and one nurse are present, ATLS is now widely accepted as the standard of care for initial assessment and treatment in trauma centers. The premise of the ATLS program is to treat the greatest threat to life first. It also advocates that the lack of a definitive diagnosis and a detailed history should not slow the application of indicated treatment for life-threatening injury, with the most time-critical interventions performed ea ...
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Pulmonary Contusion
A pulmonary contusion, also known as a lung contusion, is a bruise of the lung, caused by chest trauma. As a result of damage to capillaries, blood and other fluids accumulate in the lung tissue. The excess fluid interferes with gas exchange, potentially leading to inadequate oxygen levels ( hypoxia). Unlike a pulmonary laceration, another type of lung injury, a pulmonary contusion does not involve a cut or tear of the lung tissue. A pulmonary contusion is usually caused directly by blunt trauma but can also result from explosion injuries or a shock wave associated with penetrating trauma. With the use of explosives during World Wars I and II, pulmonary contusion resulting from blasts gained recognition. In the 1960s its occurrence in civilians began to receive wider recognition, in which cases it is usually caused by traffic accidents. The use of seat belts and airbags reduces the risk to vehicle occupants. Diagnosis is made by studying the cause of the injury, physical ...
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Osteogenesis Imperfecta
Osteogenesis imperfecta (; OI), colloquially known as brittle bone disease, is a group of genetic disorders that all result in bones that bone fracture, break easily. The range of symptoms—on the skeleton as well as on the body's other Organ (biology), organs—may be mild to severe. Symptoms found in various types of OI include sclera, whites of the eye (sclerae) that are blue instead, short stature, joint hypermobility, loose joints, hearing loss, breathing problems and problems with the teeth (dentinogenesis imperfecta). Potentially life-threatening Complication (medicine), complications, all of which become more common in more severe OI, include: tearing (Dissection (medical), dissection) of the major arteries, such as Aortic dissection, the aorta; pulmonary insufficiency, pulmonary valve insufficiency secondary to distortion of the ribcage; and basilar invagination. The underlying mechanism is usually a problem with connective tissue due to a lack of, or poorly forme ...
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