FOREIGN BODY AIRWAY OBSTRUCTION
FOREIGN BODY AIRWAY OBSTRUCTION: Etiopathogenesis: Any foreign body in the mouth may slip back into the airway and produce obstruction. In children this could be a small toy or any other object held in mouth, though perhaps the commonest (at any rate in adults) is a fragment of food which may choke the victim while eating. The resultant obstruction may be partial or complete. In the latter situation the foreign body lodges in the throat like a cork in a bottle. The victim becomes severely asphyxiated and will die or suffer permanent brain damage if the obstruction is not relieved within 4 minutes.
If the obstruction is partial, the situation may not be life threatening but the resultant hypoxia may produce serious complications, and even prove fatal in older subjects and in those with pre-existing cardiac disease. Further, it may be converted suddenly into a complete obstruction at any moment, for example, by force of a back blow which can drive the object deeper into the airway.
Clinical Features. A victim choking on a foreign body may “try to swallow” or to ‘cough it out” or to “wash it down” with water, but nothing may work. He may even be unable to speak, and indicate that I am choking only by instinctively clutching his throat with his hand, or by nodding assertively when asked “Are you choke ?”. There are three signs which indicate complete obstruction of airway: (i) inability to speak or breathe; (ii) pallor followed by increasing cyanosis; and (iii) loss of consciousness and collapse. If the obstructing object is a fragment of food, the victim will he invariably found near an eating place.
Tags: cyanosis, hypoxia
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