Manual ventilation of semi conscious patient

[josh rousseau]

I understand how to do it on an unresponsive or unconscious patient but how does it go when they are semi conscious but are not producing an adequate rate volume or both it says first tell them what ur going to do then it says when they breath u breathe with them is it on inhalation or exhalation?

 

[DesertMedic66]

Why would you try to force air in while they are exhaling?

 

[josh rousseau]

If you force air in while they are breathing can’t that be a problem as well

 

[DesertMedic66]

If they have inadequate tidal volume during their own respirations then the quick fix for that is to assist them with taking a deeper breath.

 

[VFlutter]

Why would you try to force air in while they are exhaling?

PEEP! Duh

 

[MSDeltaFlt]

I understand how to do it on an unresponsive or unconscious patient but how does it go when they are semi conscious but are not producing an adequate rate volume or both it says first tell them what ur going to do then it says when they breath u breathe with them is it on inhalation or exhalation?

When their chest expands then that is when you squeeze the bag. When their chest stops expanding stop squeezing the bag and let them exhale. Then repeat.

If you force air in while they are breathing can’t that be a problem as well

Only if you squeeze while they are exhaling. It doesn't take much pressure to dilate the cardiac sphincter (the sphincter muscle separating the esophagus from the stomach). I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of 20cmH2O (not much). Filling their stomach with air can make them vomit. Vomiting and breathing results in aspiration. Aspirating stomach acid damages lungs.

A long time ago I was given this rule of thumb. It's anecdotal with no empirical data to back it up and I don't think it's accurate but, "aspiration gives your patient a 50% mortality rate on top of their current presentation". Basically DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN.

 

[johnrsemt]

As they breathe IN help them with more Tidal Volume if needed; if they aren't breathing often enough, give them extra breaths as needed, in between theirs. Let them breathe on their own, just add more breaths.
Also treat the pt not the numbers. Sometimes I have been known to breathe almost 80 times a minute and do it for 20 minutes or so; caught it during Capnography training one day. Freaked everyone out, except me I was feeling fine and I was breathing faster than my HR