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Management of Life-Threatening Airflow Obstruction

  • Conference paper
Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

Part of the book series: Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine ((YEARBOOK,volume 1996))

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Abstract

This chapter will review the management of life-threatening airflow obstruction. Most typically, this clinical problem arises in the context of status asthmaticus (SA). Similar management problems are encountered in patients with upper airway obstruction (UAO) or, in the burn intensive care unit (ICU), inhalation injury (II). I will not discuss the entity of “acute-on-chronic respiratory failure” or exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [1]. In these patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema, airflow obstruction is a prominent component of their underlying pathophysiology, but it is also the case that other contributors to ventilatory failure are frequent, the degree of airflow obstruction is often less than in status asthmaticus, and many of their clinical abnormalities exist on a chronic and not acute basis.

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hall, J.B. (1996). Management of Life-Threatening Airflow Obstruction. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine. Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, vol 1996. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80053-5_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80053-5_39

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60552-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-80053-5

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