Citation

Truszkowski C, Schulz J, Mohammed H, Wikestad IM, Ristic M. World J. Med. Images Videos Cases 2022; 8: 1-11.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, World journal of medical images, videos and cases)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Drowning and near drowning are tragic events that occur unexpectedly often in the lives of young and otherwise healthy individuals. There are phases that have been established that describe the course of a drowning. As depicted in Figure 1, the phases begin with a state of surprise and conscious attempts to inhale frequently, followed by submersion, then involuntary inspiration of water and air, then loss of consciousness, and finally cerebral hypoxia followed by death [1, 2]. Common mechanisms of injury are hypoxemia, acidosis and hypoperfusion. While neurological and pulmonary damage is a major cause of mortality and morbidity, a submersion event can be devastating to all the major organ systems. Other possibly fatal abnormalities include cardio-vascular instability and renal failure due to ischemia and metabolic abnormalities and disseminated intravascular coagulation [3, 4]. Infection is also a potential life-threatening complication of near drowning. While attributable morbidity and mortality associated with infection in victims of near drowning are not known, fungal and bacterial infections certainly should be considered. Of the infections associated with near-drowning, pneumonia is one of the most devastating...

Language: en