ARDS: Causes (Nursing)

00:01 And the most common cause of ARDS is Sepsis.

00:04 I'm going to pause for just a moment because that's really important that you understand it.

00:09 Sepsis is a wicked, wicked process.

00:14 But the most common cause of ARDS, this syndrome is sepsis.

00:19 So make sure you have a star right by that.

00:22 Now there's some other causes but I want to keep reinforcing the most common cause is ARDS.

00:30 Now there's other things let's talk about them.

00:32 So if you're breathing in high concentrations of smoke or chemicals, or you have a severe pneumonia, this is going to risk the development of ARDS.

00:42 Because inhalation of harmful substances, like aspiration or near drowning is considered a pretty acute insult or injury to the lungs, that puts the patient at risk for developing ARDS.

00:55 And we talked about that pneumonia, but I wanted to make it a special bullet point.

00:59 Because if you a severe pneumonia, and remember everything is on a continuum.

01:05 If I have a touch of pneumonia and I'm pretty young and active I can bounce back from that quickly.

01:11 But if I have a severe pneumonia, that means every one of my lobes are infected that puts me in an increased risk for developing the syndrome of ARDS.

01:22 Now if I take a big injury if I have a head, a chest or other major injury, damage to the actual lungs or the portion of my brain that controls breathing, that increases my risk for the development of ARDS.

01:35 Now the last of five categories.

01:38 This one has some kind of some unusual things, so I want you to pay attention because this tends to be a test question.

01:44 Now the last category includes pancreatitis.

01:48 So go ahead and circle that and start it.

01:50 Because I promise you, that may likely show up on an exam for you.

01:54 But when a patient has pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas, this puts them at an increased risk for ARDS.

02:03 It progresses, it can happen.

02:05 So make sure you know that you're watching your patients with pancreatitis, for increasing respiratory distress.

02:12 Now the other categories massive blood transfusions, like what happens when someone's in a big trauma, or a patient who has suffered from burns.

02:21 Okay.

02:22 This is a slide that's worth your time.

02:24 This is a slide that's worth you focusing and really pausing here and making sure you have a clear picture.

02:31 You know what ARDS looks like on a chest x-ray, you know you have the opacities, you know we have to rule out other causes, like CHF or lung collapse.

02:41 Now, we know that there had to be an event.

02:44 Because remember that very first line of the Berlin definition, said that these need to have happened within a week.

02:51 That's important.

02:52 So this type of injury, one of these five things happened, within the last week.

02:58 Now the patient is progressing towards ARDS.