Asphyxia

Suffocation; Failure or suppression of the respiratory process due to obstruction of air flow to the lungs or to the lack of oxygen in inspired air.

A condition in which someone is prevented form breathing, by strangulation or breathing poisonous gas, and therefor cannot take oxygen into the bloodstream.

Asphyxia, also called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, is one of the leading causes of perinatal mortality and morbidity in infants. Asphyxia occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen. Although prolonged delivery can cause asphyxia, more often than not the cause is from intrauterine damage where oxygen deprivation takes place. A depletion of oxygen is caused by one of two mechanisms: hypoxemia, or a decrease of oxygen in blood that supplies tissue, or ischemia, a decrease in the actual blood supply. Hypoxia or ischemia that occurs weeks or months before birth may or may not be evident at birth. In some cases, the damage is manifest later by various neurologic signs, including seizures. In other cases, it is known at the time of birth (e.g., Apgar scores lower than 6 at 1 and 5 min postdelivery). Although the rate of occurrence is probably equal in preterm and term infants, asphyxia is more apparent in infants who have reached a gestational age of at least 35 weeks. At 34 weeks of gestational age, cortical neurons in the cerebrum, basal ganglia, brain stem, and Purkinje cells in the cerebellum are extremely vulnerable. Damage during this time often causes serious sequelae, including cerebral palsy, a non-progressive motor disorder with associated cognitive and sensory impairments. Despite improved perinatal care, the incidence of cerebral palsy that is thought to be caused by asphyxia has not changed and is estimated to involve 20% of all cases.

A severe kind of hypoxia (lack of oxygen). In the period just before, during, and after delivery, perinatal asphyxia is a leading cause of infant death.

Condition in which insufficient or no oxygen reaches the tissues, thereby threatening the life of the organism. Common causes are drowning, electric shock, inhaling poison gas, and choking. V. asphyxiate, asphyxiated.

Suffocation resulting from impaired or absent oxygen exchange.

Suffocation; interruption of breathing. Asphyxia is suffocation caused by a blocked airway or the breathing in of toxic gases. Asphyxia is the direct result of a lack of oxygen and an excess of carbon dioxide in the body, which leads to unconsciousness; if untreated, asphyxia may lead to death.

A life-threatening condition in which oxygen is prevented from reaching the tissues by obstruction of or damage to any part of the respiratory system. Drowning, choking, and breathing poisonous gas all lead to asphyxia. Unless the condition is remedied by removing the obstruction (when present) and by artificial respiration if necessary, there is progressive cyanosis leading to death. Brain cells cannot live for more than about four minutes without oxygen.

Asphyxia is the name given to the whole series of symptoms which follow stoppage of breathing and of the heart’s action. Drowning is one cause, but obstruction of the air passages may occur as the result of a foreign body or in some diseases, such as croup, diphtheria, swelling of the throat due to wounds or inflammation, asthma (to a partial extent), tumours in the chest (causing slow asphyxia), and the external conditions of suffocation and strangling. Placing the head in a plastic bag results in asphyxia, and poisonous gases also cause asphyxia: for example, carbon monoxide (CO) gas, which may be given off by a stove or charcoal brazier in a badly ventilated room, can kill people during sleep. Several gases, such as sulphurous acid (from burning sulphur), ammonia, and chlorine (from bleaching-powder), cause involuntary closure of the entrance to the larynx, and thus prevent breathing. Other gases, such as nitrous oxide (or laughing-gas), chloroform, and ether, in poisonous quantity, stop the breathing by paralysing the respiration centre in the brain.

Condition caused by insufficient intake of oxygen.

Insufficient supply of oxygen. In the context of cerebral palsy, inadequate oxygen delivery to the brain.

Asphyxia is the medical term used to describe suffocation. It can result from various causes, including the obstruction of a major airway, often by a foreign object, the inadequate presence of oxygen in the surrounding air (as can occur when a sealed plastic bag is placed over the head), or poisoning from a gas such as carbon monoxide, which hinders the absorption of oxygen into the bloodstream.