Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Standards Needed For Aspiration Pneumonia Prevention

By Joanna Walsh


Diseases of the airway are increasing from time to time among the people in the population. This phenomenon has been associated with rising level of pollution all over the world. Pneumonia is one of these numerous airway infections and it affects both old and young persons. It may be caused by several factors. One of such factors is aspiration and therefore there is need for aspiration pneumonia prevention as a way of reducing airway disease burden in the population.

There are various causes of such a lung disease that need to be known and avoided at all cost. In general terms, this disease may be the result of a number of factors including inhalation of vomited substance, food or any other form of viscous fluids. The inhaled substance causes a form of trauma that finally leads to infection and consequently inflammation of lung epithelium.

Ways and means of preventing any occurrence of this nature is therefore very necessary. All persons are at risk of aspiration though particular persons are more predisposed and therefore at a greater risk than others. These more vulnerable people are individuals who already suffer from other disease which impair their ability to perform the usual activities of daily living.

For patients who are fed with aid of nasal-gastric tubing, a keen insertion procedure is necessary to ensure that the feeding tube ends up in the stomach and not lungs. A verification assessment should be carried out to confirm the position of an inserted tube before it is finally used for the intended purpose. Better still, feeding should be carried out following provided professional standards. Such standards include flow of feeds by aid of gravity alone. This is an exemplary precaution to prevent disease occurrence.

Patients with altered state of mind are equally predisposed and therefore require precautionary measures to prevent aspirating food as well as airway secretions. Positioning is one good way of achieving this objective. Head of bed should be elevated at an angle of 45 degrees and the patient be placed on left lateral position. This limits flow back of stomach content and encourages free drainage of oral secretions.

Use of tracheal tubes is yet another risk factor. The patients involved are on mechanical ventilation and therefore unable to clear their airway of secretions. This therefore implies that healthcare professionals involved in providing services to these patients must take up this role as well. This is achieved by timely and efficient suctioning.

Good oral care is necessary for various reasons in both healthy and sick persons. In real sense, no one should claim good health sate when oral care is not done. It helps in preventing teeth decay, bad breath and more importantly infection in case of aspiration. Unclean mouth is full of bacteria and therefore a very big risk to good health in case it finds its way to the airway.

Finally, it is worth noting that prevention is far much better and acceptable that reaction measures. Whenever possible, all identified risk factors must be controlled and or eliminated to limit any chance of developing a disease.




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