Things To Know Concerning Aspiration Pneumonia Prevention

By Mary Stewart


Aspiration refers to misdirection of either the gastric or even oropharyngeal content to the lower respiratory tract or to the larynx. This usually results to wide spectrum of clinical syndromes depending several host factors, the amount as well as amount of material which has been aspirated without forgetting the aspiration frequency. In reality there has no proven test which can be used in the detection of the micro aspiration which might be available with regards to the aspiration pneumonia prevention.

Even though this type of illness mostly occurs during the night when a person is in a normal sleep, cough reflexes together with the mucociliary mechanisms of defense tends to effectively clear the airways with an aim of preventing occurrence of most of most complications of the pulmonary. When some of these mechanisms get impaired or they are absent, infections especially from the aspirated germs pathogens as well as the obstruction of the airway might occur. Aspiration pneumonia tends to occur when the oropharygeal or even the gastric content which appears to be colonized with some pathogenic bacteria gets aspirated on the lower tract of respiratory.

So as to minimize the threat of aspiration, it therefore becomes extremely important to make use of the lowest effective sedation level. Another strategy which can be used as a prevention strategy is the assessing the tube which is basically used for feeding at close regular intervals. Most of medical experts usually recommend that the tube used for feeding needs to be verified at several regular intervals so as to reduce the risks associated with aspiration.

Sedation is actually one of such strategies which is used to prevent this particular type of an illness. This is basically a strategy which focuses on the reducing the reflexes of the gags as well as cough and can actually interfere with the patients ability to handle most of these secretions coming from both the gastric as well as oropharyngeal content.

Another measure is basically the assessment of gastrointestinal intolerance especially to the tube used for feeding. Those patients who actually rely on tube feeding and usually experience some recurrent regurgitation together with the aspiration of the gastric content are basically placed at a much higher risk associated with poor respiratory outcomes.

Fasting actually before anesthesia basically reduces the gastric volume which also helps in minimizing the risks associated with such a illness. It is actually suggested that patients need to fast for at least two hours especially after liquids and also after nine hours after a heavy meal. However it may also appear that the stomach might contain some acidic fluids especially from bilious fluids together with the secretions of gastric which in turn might be aspirated.

Another necessary strategy is by simply avoiding the bolus tube feeding especially for the patients who are at a high risk of this particular disease. Experts dealing with this particular disease have made a conclusions regarding the best formula which can offer much effective as a delivery method. It has also been suggested that there exists no clear guidelines associated with the bolus feeding.

These prevention methods usually aim at minimizing the colonization of bacteria of both the gastric as well as the oropharygeal content. The use of feeding tubes may it be the orogastric, nasogastric or even the percutaneous usually prevent aspiration pneumonia has extensively remained controversial.




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