Oxygen administration

Treatment of barbiturate toxicity is mainly supportive (ie, maintaining a patent airway, oxygen administration, monitoring vital signs and fluid balance). The patient may require treatment for shock, respiratory assistance, administration of activated charcoal, and in severe cases of toxicity, hemodialysis. 

General treatment measures for all STE ACS and high- and intermediate-risk NSTE patients include admission to hospital, oxygen administration (if oxygen saturation is low, less than 90%), continuous multi-lead ST-segment monitoring for arrhythmias and ischemia, frequent measurement of vital signs, bed rest for 12 hours in hemodynamically stable patients, avoidance of Valsalva maneuver (prescribe stool softeners routinely), and pain relief (Fig. 5-3). 

The effects of oxygen breathing on cognition in healthy people has only received limited attention. In the 1970s, Edwards and Hart examined the effects of hyperbaric oxygen administration on healthy elderly outpatients and found substantial... 

Moss MC, Scholey AB and Wesnes K (1998). Oxygen administration selectively enhances cognitive performance in healthy young adults a placebo-controlled, double blind crossover study. Psychopharmacology, 138, 27-33. 

Scholey AB, Moss MC, Neave N and Wesnes KA (1999). Cognitive performance, hyperoxia and heart rate following oxygen administration in healthy young adults. Physiology and Behavior, 67, 783-789. 

Moss MC and Scholey AB (1996). Oxygen administration enhances memory formation in healthy young adults. Psychopharmacology, 124, 255-260. 

Another concern—that customary doses of B-agonist treatment may cause lethal cardiac arrhythmias—appears unsubstantiated. In patients presenting for emergency treatment of severe asthma, irregularities in cardiac rhythm improve with the improvements in gas exchange effected by bronchodilator treatment and oxygen administration. 

Cellular hypoxia may occur in spite of adequate ventilation and oxygen administration when poisoning is due to cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and other poisons that interfere with transport or utilization of oxygen. Such patients may not be cyanotic, but cellular hypoxia is evident by the development of tachycardia, hypotension, severe lactic acidosis, and signs of ischemia on the electrocardiogram. 

Anesthetic gases such as nitrous oxide produce difficulty in concentrating, dreaminess, euphoria, numbness and tingling, unsteadiness, and visual and auditory disturbances. Nitrous oxide is usually taken as 35% N2O mixed with oxygen administration of 100% nitrous oxide may cause asphyxia and death. Ether and chloroform are readily available, and after an initial period of exhilaration, the person often loses consciousness. 

A 26-year-old woman with a history of multiple substance abuse required emergency caesarean section at 30 weeks of gestation as a result of crack cocaine-induced placental abruption and fetal distress (251). Her admission blood pressure was 145/95 mmHg, heart rate 95/minute and respiratory rate 20/minute. The fetal heart rate was 130/minute and non-reactive, with late and variable decelerations and no response to maternal oxygen administration. Spinal block with bupivacaine, fentanyl, and morphine was performed with the patient in a sitting position. No maternal or neonatal postoperative complications were reported. 

Treatment is basically symptomatic and supportive no specific antidotes are available. Artificial ventilation with 100% humidified oxygen is necessary in cases of respiratory distress. If patient is cyanotic and cyanosis does not respond to oxygen administration, methemoglobin levels should be determined. Methemoglobinemia can be treated by intravenous administration of methylene blue. Support of cardiovascular function may also be required. Bladder damage can be determined by urinalysis. Hypotension may be treated with isotonic intravenous fluids. Dopamine or norepinephrine may be used if hypotension does not respond to infusion of fluids. Convulsions may be treated with intravenous benzodiazepines (diazepam or loraze-pam) phenobarbital may be used if the convulsions are recurrent. Because chlordimeform is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, foods with large amounts of... 

Their conclusions from their experiments were unequivocal The intravenous method of oxygen administration, if carefully carried out... is available to the clinician and will give therapeutic results. 

Oxygen administration to subject from medical oxygen cylinder... 

After acute inhalation exposure to high concentrations of vanadium and/or compounds, pulmonary edema may result. If so, oxygen administration may be necessary. Experimental evidence suggests that the administration of steroids such as prednisolone succinate or phthalate may prevent the development of a chemical lung edema (Stutz and Janusz 1988). 

In July 1962 a Workshop on Oxygen Administration under Increased Atmospheric Pressure was held in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the National Research Coimcil (Al). There have been numerous s3on-posia pertaining to high pressure oxygen therapy on local, regional, national, and international levels. Industries that never before manufactured pressure chambers suddenly became involved in this venture some have dropped... 

Interruption of oxygen administration decreases the toxic effects on the pulmonary and cerebral nervous system, especially if the periods of exposure to oxygen are of short duration (K5, P9). However, there is evidence that even routine oxygen therapy may give rise to pulmonary alterations (P18). 

Calcification was also detected in the macula densa, an area rich in oxygen. Administration of AmB to salt depleted rats resulted in an extension of these changes to the area rich in vascular tissue between the medullary rays and to atrophic changes in the thick ascending limb in the inner stripe [38a] (Figure 3). 

MEDICATION MEMORY JOGGER Oxygen is a medication, and the nurse should remember basic principles that apply to oxygen administration. The test taker could choose the correct answer based on Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs and breath-ing/oxygen is the priority. 

Gilson AJ, Sahn SA. Reactivation of bleomycin lung toxicity followii oxygen administration. A second re nse to corticosteroids. Chest (1985) 88, 304-6. 

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