Pneumonia is a disease of the lungs. There are different forms of this disease. One is form aspiration pneumonia. In this case, fluids or other solid materials drawn to the airway causes trauma and consequently infection of lungs. An infection results to inflammatory response causing impairment in gaseous exchange. For this kind of health risk, it is therefore necessary to observe measures of aspiration pneumonia prevention.
All persons are at risk as long as they feed or breathe. These two activities are inevitable for life to exist yet they are responsible for causing aspiration. Aspired substances usually originate from the oral cavity which is full of bacteria. These bacteria could be very virulent and or pathogenic when exposed to some other body parts. Bacteria may be aspirated together with food, oral saliva or even drinks.
Any person has a potential of developing this condition although some others are more predisposed than others. For this reason, a special care has to be given to particular group of individuals. These include; patients with altered state of health, those experiencing convulsive disorders, and individuals fed using nasal-gastric tubes among many more situation. In these conditions, people are unable to balance the flow of substance between trachea and esophagus.
For patients who are fed with aid of nasal-gastric tubing, a keen insertion procedure is necessary to ensure that the feeding tube ends up in the stomach and not lungs. A verification assessment should be carried out to confirm the position of an inserted tube before it is finally used for the intended purpose. Better still, feeding should be carried out following provided professional standards. Such standards include flow of feeds by aid of gravity alone. This is an exemplary precaution to prevent disease occurrence.
Patients with altered state of mind are equally predisposed and therefore require precautionary measures to prevent aspirating food as well as airway secretions. Positioning is one good way of achieving this objective. Head of bed should be elevated at an angle of 45 degrees and the patient be placed on left lateral position. This limits flow back of stomach content and encourages free drainage of oral secretions.
Use of tracheal tubes is yet another risk factor. The patients involved are on mechanical ventilation and therefore unable to clear their airway of secretions. This therefore implies that healthcare professionals involved in providing services to these patients must take up this role as well. This is achieved by timely and efficient suctioning.
One other way of preventing this disease is through provision of sound oral care. Unclean oral cavity accumulates bacteria in large numbers thereby raising risk of infection in case oral content finds its way to airway. A regular and precise oral care is therefore a precautionary measure to limit infection even when patient aspirate oral fluid.
It is easier to prevent a disease than to cure it. Cure options have more reaching social, psychological and economic impacts as compared to preventive measures. All persons deserve good health and must therefore be well handled to prevent further degeneration of their health states.
All persons are at risk as long as they feed or breathe. These two activities are inevitable for life to exist yet they are responsible for causing aspiration. Aspired substances usually originate from the oral cavity which is full of bacteria. These bacteria could be very virulent and or pathogenic when exposed to some other body parts. Bacteria may be aspirated together with food, oral saliva or even drinks.
Any person has a potential of developing this condition although some others are more predisposed than others. For this reason, a special care has to be given to particular group of individuals. These include; patients with altered state of health, those experiencing convulsive disorders, and individuals fed using nasal-gastric tubes among many more situation. In these conditions, people are unable to balance the flow of substance between trachea and esophagus.
For patients who are fed with aid of nasal-gastric tubing, a keen insertion procedure is necessary to ensure that the feeding tube ends up in the stomach and not lungs. A verification assessment should be carried out to confirm the position of an inserted tube before it is finally used for the intended purpose. Better still, feeding should be carried out following provided professional standards. Such standards include flow of feeds by aid of gravity alone. This is an exemplary precaution to prevent disease occurrence.
Patients with altered state of mind are equally predisposed and therefore require precautionary measures to prevent aspirating food as well as airway secretions. Positioning is one good way of achieving this objective. Head of bed should be elevated at an angle of 45 degrees and the patient be placed on left lateral position. This limits flow back of stomach content and encourages free drainage of oral secretions.
Use of tracheal tubes is yet another risk factor. The patients involved are on mechanical ventilation and therefore unable to clear their airway of secretions. This therefore implies that healthcare professionals involved in providing services to these patients must take up this role as well. This is achieved by timely and efficient suctioning.
One other way of preventing this disease is through provision of sound oral care. Unclean oral cavity accumulates bacteria in large numbers thereby raising risk of infection in case oral content finds its way to airway. A regular and precise oral care is therefore a precautionary measure to limit infection even when patient aspirate oral fluid.
It is easier to prevent a disease than to cure it. Cure options have more reaching social, psychological and economic impacts as compared to preventive measures. All persons deserve good health and must therefore be well handled to prevent further degeneration of their health states.
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