Meningitis: Anatomy Review (Nursing)

00:01 Hi, it's Professor Lawes.

00:02 Hey, we're going to do something a little different in this video.

00:06 So you and I are going to walk through a patient.

00:08 So, we've got an example for you.

00:10 And you and I are going to figure out together, what's wrong with this patient.

00:15 See, it's exactly like what you'll do in practice.

00:17 So, meet our patient, his name is John.

00:20 Now, when you first take a look at John, he doesn't look really well, right? He appears to be sick.

00:26 But in this video, we're going to figure out what is going on with John and help him get better.

00:31 So, your first clue, I can tell you it has something to do with what's going on inside his head.

00:39 Now, I know you immediately thought of inside his head.

00:42 It must be your brain, although, your brain probably hurts, right now, if you're in nursing school.

00:46 But think about the brain, what are the first things that come to your mind? Because when you think of the brain, it's easy to imagine on its own inside her head, and it's just doing everything by itself.

00:56 But think of an organ that is that important, we need to protect it at all times.

01:02 So there's probably some other structures in between the skull and the tissue of the brain to help keep it safe.

01:10 Now, take a look at this slide.

01:12 Our medical artists has put a skull in there just to help you kind of get oriented.

01:16 So, usually think of the skull is what is protecting the brain but the body has even more.

01:22 What we're going to focus on is not so much the skull or the brain tissue.

01:27 But we're going to focus on what is actually protecting the brain in addition to the skull.

01:34 So, take a look here, we've taken a cross section.

01:36 I love it when the artists do this because it makes it so much easier to see.

01:41 So, we've got a cross section of this segment, right.

01:44 So, here's John's head, we've done a cross segment that you see there with the circle.

01:49 And then these are the layers that are in between the skull and the brain.

01:54 So, take a look where the arrow is see that we've labeled the skull for you.

01:58 And you can see in this cross section, we have two main structures that we've already talked about the skull that you see there with the white arrow, and the brain.

02:07 Okay, so now you know where we are.

02:09 We are inside John's head, we're talking about the area in between the skull and the actual brain tissue.

02:16 Now, between these two, we can see a bunch of structures that you may or may not be familiar with.

02:22 So, let's take a little bit of a closer look.

02:24 Now, on your notes or on the screen, put one finger on the skull, put one finger on the brain tissue, because they want you to remind your brain of what we're talking about.

02:34 So, the first structure we're talking from the outside to the inside, or from the superficial to the deep, is the dura mater.

02:43 Now, you can see it labeled here.

02:45 So, from the skull, the first structure we're talking about is the dura mater.

02:51 Now, we have the next layer. Let me give you a study tip.

02:55 As you're going through with me, Don't just watch the information, you want to do things that help you get it deep into your own brain so you can recall it when you need it.

03:04 So, put your finger on the dura mater and remember where you are in between the skull and the brain.

03:10 Next, the layer that comes next beneath the dura mater is the arachnoid mater.

03:16 Now, the third and deepest layer is the pia mater.

03:19 That's the one closest to the brain.

03:21 Now, it's important that you remember that the skull isn't the only structure that protects the brain.

03:26 And these three structures that we're talking about, they do more than just protect the brain.

03:32 But we'll talk about that in another video series.

03:35 For now, we're going to focus on these three structures.

03:38 So, the dura mater, the arachnoid mater, and the pia mater make up what we call the meninges.

03:44 And that's kind of a weird sounding name, but take your time, you need to remember that because we're talking about the meninges in this video series.

03:53 So, you've got the dura mater, the arachnoid mater, and the pia mater.

03:57 Those three make up the meninges.

04:00 Now, there's a mnemonic to remember this, and this is how I've remembered it since I was in nursing school.

04:05 The Meninges PAD the Brain.

04:08 Now, look at the letters if you start with pia mater, right, by the brain, arachnoid mater, and dura mater See, they P-A-D. They PAD the brain.

04:17 So, if you're going from the closest to the brain up to the skull, you'll have pia mater, arachnoid mater, and dura mater.

04:24 Okay, so that's a way to help you remember where those layers are.

04:29 That's going from deep all the way up to superficial toward the skull.

04:33 And you might think like, "Well, that's fun." No, really, I promise that one is going to help you.

04:38 So hang on to that mnemonic.

04:40 You want to write it on the side of your notes, come back to that, and review that over the next couple of days so you remember, it's going to come in particularly useful when you start talking about brain bleeds in other sections of your courses.

04:53 So, we're talking about meningitis. Well, why that matters? You see those four letters, - itis? That always means inflammation.

05:02 So, for now, what we know are the meninges, the three layers that we just talked about those three structures are inflamed.

05:10 And that's what meningitis is. That's actually what John has.

05:14 He is currently experiencing meningitis.

05:17 Now, let's get down a little deeper. Take a look at this picture, what looks different from this picture than the first one we saw? Whoa, yeah, it's all red and inflamed.

05:28 So, when you're thinking about what is meningitis, a simple way to remember that is the name like we just talked about.

05:34 So, on this slide, we put -itis in red to remind you, that -itis means inflammation.

05:41 So, meningitis means inflammation of the meninges.

05:46 So, as an extra reminder, we've got this very red slide up here to remind you, meningitis should always be taken seriously, and can actually be life threatening.

05:56 Now, I'll help you break down where the differences are.

05:58 But I didn't want to go forward until it was very clear in your mind what meningitis is, and how serious a situation your patient may find themselves.