What Do You Mean by Shock in Medical?
Shock is known as a life-threatening medical condition that is the result of inadequate blood flow throughout the body. Shock often accompanies severe injury or illness. Medical shock is a medical emergency condition and can lead to other situations like heart failure (cardiac arrest), lack of oxygen in the body’s tissues (hypoxia), or organ damage. It required immediate treatment as symptoms can worsen rapidly.
In shock, blood flow in the body is disturbed. The brain will not get enough blood and sudden depression of vital functions may occur. A sudden collapse of circulation is also known as shock. The impacts of shock are initially reversible but rapidly become irreversible, resulting in multi-organ failure (MOF) and death.
What are the Common Signs of Shock?
Various sign and symptoms of all types of shock include the followings:
- Rapid, shallow, or gasping breathing,
- Cold, pale, clammy skin,
- Rapid but weak pulse,
- Dizziness or fainting,
- Weakness, fainting or giddiness, and discomfort,
- Eyes appear to stare,
- Pupils are dilated, lusterless of eyes,
- Anxiety or restlessness or agitation,
- Seizures,
- Confusion or unresponsiveness,
- Low or no urine output,
- Bluish lips and fingernails,
- Profuse sweating, moist skin,
- Shaking and trembling of arms and legs,
- Chest pain,
- Nausea, vomiting or extreme thirst,
- Blood pressure falls,
- Sunken eyes (Lusterless eyes),
- Shaking and trembling of arms and legs,
- Face pale and grey color,
- Occasionally cyanosis,
- The temperature will be subnormal,
- Unconsciousness may be developed,
- Evidence of associated external or internal bleeding,
- Generally, the patient is very quiet and dustless but the shock is caused by hemorrhage in which the patient will be restless and anxious.
What are the Main Causes of Shock in Medical?
There are some common causes of shock which are listed in the following:
- Heart conditions (Heart attack, heart failure),
- Heavy internal or external bleeding like from a serious injury or rupture of a blood vessel,
- Dehydration, when acute or related to heat sickness,
- Infection (Septic shock),
- Severe allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock),
- Spinal injuries (neurogenic shock),
- Burns,
- Persistent vomiting or diarrhea,
- Bleeding,
- Anaphylaxis,
- Epidural hematoma,
- Carbon monoxide poisoning,
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm,
- Meningococcemia,
- Adult respiratory distress syndrome,
- Hereditary angioedema,
- Chronic poisoning,
- Colitis,
- Kwashiorkor,
- Caffeine overdose,
- Anthrax,
- The Plague.
More questions related to this article:
- What is meant by shock?
- What is the shock in medical?
- List some common symptoms of shock.
- What are the clinical features of shock?
- How will you identify a patient is in shock?
- Mention the etiology of shock.
- What are the signs of being in shock?
- What is the first sign of shock?
- What happens to your body when you go into shock?
Maria Khatun Mona is a Founder and Editor of Nursing Exercise Blog. She is a Nursing and Midwifery Expert. Currently she is working as a Registered Nurse at Evercare Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has great passion in writing different articles on Nursing and Midwifery. Mail her at “maria.mona023@gmail.com”