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A medical triad is a group of three signs or symptoms, the result of injury to three organs, which characterise a specific medical condition. The appearance of all three signs conjoined together in another patient, points to that the patient has the same medical condition, or diagnosis.
The major tissues affected are nerves and muscles, where irreversible damage starts to occur after 4–6 hours of cessation of blood supply. [4] Skeletal muscle, the major tissue affected, is still relatively resistant to infarction compared to the heart and brain because its ability to rely on anaerobic metabolism by glycogen stored in the cells may supply the muscle tissue long enough for ...
The phenomenon has been observed to occur several minutes after the removal of medical ventilators used to pump air in and out of brain-dead patients. [4] It also occurs during testing for apnea—that is, suspension of external breathing and motion of the lung muscles—which is one of the criteria for determining brain death used for example by the American Academy of Neurology.
Cadaveric spasm is seen in cases of drowning victims when grass, weeds, roots or other materials are clutched, and provides evidence of life at the time of entry into the water. Cadaveric spasm often crystallizes the last activity one did before death and is therefore significant in forensic investigations, e.g. holding onto a knife tightly. [4]
Abnormal posturing is an involuntary flexion or extension of the arms and legs, indicating severe brain injury. It occurs when one set of muscles becomes incapacitated while the opposing set is not, and an external stimulus such as pain causes the working set of muscles to contract. [1] The posturing may also occur without a stimulus.
The surgeon attaches one end of the new vessel right before the blockage, and the other end in the area after the affected portion. [13] This reestablishes proper blood flow toward the desired area. Steps of performing an endarterectomy on the carotid artery, in which the accumulated atheroma is removed via surgery.
Dying with medical assistance is currently legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C., but eight other states are considering similar laws this year, according to the nonprofit Death with Dignity.
There have been five rare cases of a traumatic aortic rupture going undiagnosed of more than a year, and presenting with chest and back pain. They had pseudoaneurysms or large aneurysms that caused pain. Asymptomatic chronic traumatic aneurysms are not always a risk for sudden death unless too large.