The alveoli do not open and there is no gas exchange, indicating that the patient is severely hypoxic and may even die of suffocation. Such symptoms of hypoxia and suffocation are called respiratory distress syndrome, or RDS in English. In adult patients, it is called adult-type RDS, or ARDS for short.
, add an A. Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome is NRDS, add an N. Why should the two be separated? Because the causes of respiratory distress syndrome in adults and newborns are not the same.
Adult ARDS, the same example of SARS that left a deep impression on us, is mainly caused by severe infection. In the lungs of patients with severe infection, the virus inactivates a large amount of alveolar surfactant (PS), causing the alveoli to collapse.
At the same time, a large amount of mucus is produced, which can block the bronchus and cause mechanical obstruction of the bronchus that cannot be eliminated, eventually leading to the patient's death from severe hypoxia.
The treatment plan must first be to fight infection. In the absence of specific drugs for a certain virus, the effectiveness of anti-infection can only be greatly reduced. Doctors only have physical options such as bronchoscopy and back patting to cough up phlegm. These are the only life-saving options available.
Methods have become particularly important in the rescue of such patients. Therefore, a large number of nurses are needed in such wards to assist in the rescue. The rest can only rely on the patient's own immune system to fight infection. But relying on the patient's own immune system to fight infection is effective
Another fatal factor is the immune storm that we can hear doctors talking about, which is also one of the important causes of death for this type of patients.
It can be seen that for patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome, current medical methods are limited, which has always made clinicians very afraid. When encountering new respiratory virus infections such as SARS, the only option is to adopt more distant and ancient methods such as isolation.
There is no way, there is no cure.
In addition to infection, adult respiratory distress syndrome can be caused by trauma, foreign body inhalation and other factors. The process is also dangerous and has a high mortality rate.
In comparison, NRDS and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome mainly occur in premature infants. The cause of this type of children is relatively single in retrospect, and it appears to be easier to treat.
To understand the origin of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, we must first understand the mechanism of normal babies leaving the mother's body. First of all, when the fetus is in the mother's womb, it does not breathe on its own and the lungs are atelectatic and the alveoli are not inflated. After birth, the baby needs to rely on the mother
The alveolar surfactant is given to the baby's lungs to allow the baby's lungs to automatically inflate. Premature babies lack this substance because they leave the mother's body early and do not receive gifts from the mother. The alveoli cannot be inflated and opened, causing difficulty in breathing.
Going back to the lung-stimulating needles mentioned by Dr. Hu at the beginning of the discussion, the most commonly used drugs in clinical practice are hormonal drugs such as dexamethasone, which use this mechanism of action to induce fetal lung type 2 cells to produce alveolar surfactant.
PS, ultimately avoid white lungs and avoid respiratory distress.
The current situation is an emergency. The doctor failed to give the mother a lung-stimulating injection in advance. As a result, the baby who was born early had symptoms of respiratory distress. As Dr. Hu said, it was expected by the medical staff.
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Now that we know that the baby is lacking this substance causing respiratory distress, can we directly give the baby alveolar surfactant? Of course. The question is, where can such a thing be found in a small health center?
This kind of medicine is expensive. Generally, hospitals that do not have specialized neonatology departments will not have this kind of specialized expensive medicine.