What is an alcoholic coma?

Excessive use of alcohol adversely affects the state of the body - this is known to everyone. But too much a dose of ethyl alcohol can lead to very dangerous consequences. Including a condition called alcoholic coma. As you know, the coma is quite often leads to death.

Alcoholic coma: causes . The reason for the development of this state is intoxication of the body with ethyl alcohol. In fact, it is not possible to determine the exact amount of alcohol that is lethal. First, everything here depends, first of all, on the individual susceptibility of the organism to alcohol. Some people become ill after a few drinks of strong drink, and some, on the contrary, are very resistant to the effects of ethanol.

The general condition of the body also matters - the level of immune defense, the state of the liver, the presence of other diseases. In addition, alcohol can not be consumed on an empty stomach - so ethyl alcohol is absorbed into the blood more quickly. It is worth paying attention to the concentration of ethanol - if it is higher than 12%, then intoxication will be heavier.

As a rule, the state of coma develops when the body has 3 grams of ethanol per liter of blood. If this indicator increases to 5 grams, then the probability of a lethal outcome is high.

Alcoholic coma: the main symptoms . In medicine, it is common to distinguish three main stages of development of such a coma.

• Stage one, or superficial coma. The person loses consciousness. Further, severe vomiting or hypersalivation may occur. Hypertension of muscles of extremities is observed. The pupils of the patient are narrowed, but all the main reflexes are preserved. The facial skin becomes cyanotic.
• Stage two. At this stage, blood pressure is significantly reduced . The breathing of a poisoned person noticeably slows down. If you listen to the pulse, you can see that it is very weak and fast. The muscle tone and natural tendon reflexes at this stage disappear, but the person still reacts to the pain. A characteristic sign of a coma is involuntary defecation and urination.
• Stage three, or a deep alcoholic coma. If you listen to the pulse or breath of a person, you can notice that they are rare, weak and irregular. At this stage all reflexes disappear, the patient no longer reacts to pain. Pupils greatly expand, the skin acquires an even more pronounced, cyanotic shade.

If you do not provide medical assistance to a person, then it is likely that a deep drug coma will be fatal. In most cases, death occurs as a result of strangulation of its own vomit masses or sunken tongue (muscles lose their tone). If the concentration of ethyl alcohol in the blood increases sharply, then the development of respiratory arrest or cardiovascular insufficiency may develop.

In any case, the average and severe forms of alcohol coma are fraught with serious consequences for the human body - kidney failure, myorienal syndrome, acidosis, hypokalemia and thickening of the blood.

Alcoholic coma: treatment . The first thing to do is to call a team of doctors. Until then, it is necessary to give the patient first aid. First, lay the person on a flat surface and turn his head on his side - so he does not choke on vomit. Watch also for his language - if he begins to sink, then it must be held. When the heart or breathing stops, you need to massage your heart and do artificial respiration.

As for the drug treatment, it all depends on the degree of damage to the body. As a rule, to begin with, doctors clean the respiratory tract of mucus and provide the necessary amount of oxygen. In more severe cases, the patient is connected to an artificial respiration apparatus.

The gastric lavage is also carried out - a probe is used for this purpose. To remove ethanol from the blood, the patient is intravenously injected with physiological saline and glucose.

It should be noted once again that alcoholic coma is a very dangerous condition that requires immediate medical attention.