Emergency care in an attack of bronchial asthma should be provided immediately. Very often, due to a choking attack, a person begins to experience fear and panic. This, in turn, only aggravates the situation.
Unfortunately, asthma is an incurable and recurring disease. A dangerous symptom of the disease – periodically occurring attacks of suffocation, resulting from the narrowing of the bronchi and, as a consequence, bronchospasm, as well as increased secretion. Also, bronchospasm can occur due to edema of the bronchial mucosa.
There is a bronchial asthma attack and a condition called asthmatic status, which is a long-term obstruction that is not sensitive to the use of drugs that remove bronchospasm. The condition of asthmatic status invariably leads to acute respiratory failure, and is a serious condition that carries a direct threat to human life. This condition requires emergency medical care, up to the use of resuscitation.
What to do first?
If you are ill with a disease such as bronchial asthma, emergency care may be necessary with a normal attack of asphyxiation.
- For emergency care in an attack of bronchial asthma, it is necessary, first of all, to stop interacting with the allergen that caused the attack.
- The next step is to conduct inhalation therapy using a special nebulizer with a bronchodilator drug. Inhaler should be shaken several times, turning upside down, insert the mouthpiece of the nebulizer into the mouth and press twice, trying to put the medicine on the back wall of the pharynx. It is possible to use the inhaler no more than three times in a row!
- To stabilize the condition, intravenous jet or intramuscular administration of aminophylline solution is necessary.
- If there are no such contraindications as hypertension or old age, you can subcutaneously inject adrenaline solution. If this therapy has no effect, the introduction of hormonal drugs, glucocorticoids (hydrocortisone or Prednisolone) intravenously.
Most often, after these procedures, a patient with asthma begins to lose sputum. Wheezing and dyspnea become weaker and the attack stops for some time, from half an hour to an hour.
Emergency with asthmatic status
Sometimes it happens that a choking attack is not relieved and the therapy being conducted does not have the desired effect. This is a critical condition called asthmatic status. This condition is considered extremely dangerous for life.
In case of asthmatic status, it is necessary to carry out all the above measures and urgently call the medical team, since in asthmatic status urgent hospitalization is necessary, most often in intensive care unit.
Emergency measures during an attack of bronchial asthma should be continued throughout the entire time, up to hospitalization, where qualified physicians will be treating the disease.