For the third day of trauma week 2023, we watched a video made by Dr. Lutz, who works with Pulmonary Associates and learned about burns and respiratory damage from chemicals and recovery from such injuries. Upper airway injuries can happen because of direct heat and chemical wounds, while lower airway injuries can happen mostly just because of chemical inhalation from substances like asphyxiants and pulmonary irritants. These usually cause edema(swelling), surfactant loss, airway spasms, and sloughing of tissues. Airway injuries typically affect the whole respiratory tract(nose, mouth, and back of the throat) due to the blockage of oxygen to the lungs. It is important to recognize symptoms of inhalation injuries, such as wheezing and coughing, because they can be deadly. Swelling of the airways is one of the biggest worries because it happens so fast. To assess the injured after a chemical burn/injury, check for warning signs, like facial burns, singed nose/facial hairs, soot in the mouth/nose, black mucus, and wheezing, and bad signs, like burns around the neck, confusion, mouth edema, facial burns, and breathing problems. To treat this immediately, they give airway support, medication, and repeat bronchoscopy to clear off dead tissue. They also treat complications, such as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, fluid overload, and nutrition problems. Tracheostomies are done on patients who have trouble breathing where they surgically implant a tube into the lung to allow oxygen in and out more easily. Long-term effects of chemical inhalation/injuries may be permanent injury/scarring, constant ventilator use, and asthma-like symptoms. Today, I learned it is important to be careful around chemicals. Otherwise, you may end up being a life-long ventilator user.
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