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Internal bleeding (also called internal haemorrhage) is a loss of blood from a blood vessel that collects inside the body, and is not usually visible from the outside. [1] It can be a serious medical emergency but the extent of severity depends on bleeding rate and location of the bleeding (e.g. head, torso, extremities).
A hemothorax (derived from hemo-[blood] + thorax [chest], plural hemothoraces) is an accumulation of blood within the pleural cavity.The symptoms of a hemothorax may include chest pain and difficulty breathing, while the clinical signs may include reduced breath sounds on the affected side and a rapid heart rate.
There are many causes, which can be broadly grouped into three mechanisms: primary (internal bleeding and swelling); secondary (vigorous fluid replacement as an unintended complication of resuscitative medical treatment, leading to the acute formation of ascites and a rise in intra-abdominal pressure); and recurrent (compartment syndrome that ...
Bleeding may not be readily apparent; internal organs such as the liver, kidney and spleen may bleed into the abdominal cavity. The only apparent signs may come with blood loss. Bleeding from a bodily orifice, such as the rectum, nose, or ears may signal internal bleeding, but cannot be relied upon.
Initial management consists of immediate blood transfusion if the patient is in hemorrhagic shock. Classically, hemoperitoneum was an indication for emergency surgery to locate the source of bleeding and also to recover spilled blood from the peritoneal cavity and to use it for auto-transfusion if it has not been contaminated by ruptured bowel contents.
To estimate the body surface area of a burn, the rule of nines assigns BSA values to each major body part: [3] This allows the emergency medical provider to obtain a quick estimate of how much body surface area is burned. For example, if a patient's entire back (18%) and entire left leg (18%) are burned, about 36% of the patient's BSA is affected.
The human body and even its individual body fluids may be conceptually divided into various fluid compartments, which, although not literally anatomic compartments, do represent a real division in terms of how portions of the body's water, solutes, and suspended elements are segregated. The two main fluid compartments are the intracellular and ...
A nasogastric aspirate can help determine the location (source) of bleeding and help understand the best initial diagnostic and treatment plan. Nasogastric aspirate has a sensitivity of 42%, specificity 91%, negative predictive value 64%, positive predictive value 92% and overall accuracy of 66% in differentiating upper gastrointestinal ...