A-E Flashcards
What are the steps in the A-E assessment?
- Airway
- Breathing
- Circulation
- Disability
- Exposure
What are the steps of the inspection of the airway in an A-E assessment?
- Can the patient talk?
If yes, then still listen for stridor which can indicate upper airway obstruction
If the patient cannot talk, what do you do next?
Look for signs ofairwaycompromise
Open the mouth and inspect (look for secretions and foreign objects)
What are signs of airway compromise?
Cyanosis See-saw breathing Use of accessory muscles Diminished breath sounds Added breath sounds
What are causes of airway obstruction or compromise?
- Inhaled foreign body
- Blood in the airway
- Vomit or secretions in the airway
- Soft tissue swelling
- Local mass effect (tumours and lymphadenopathy)
- Laryngospasm
- Depressed level of consciousness
What interventions would you consider if someone’s airway is compromised?
Seek immediate help from an anaesthesiologist
- Head-tilt chin-life manoeuvre
- Jaw thrust
- CPR
What are the steps of the inspection of the breathing in an A-E assessment?
- Observations: RR, O2 sats
- General inspection
- Tracheal position
- Chest expansion
- Percussion of the chest
- Auscultation
What is a normal heart rate? And what are causes of brradypnoea and tachypnoea?
12-20 breaths per minute
Bradypnoeamay be due to sedation, opioid toxicity, raised intracranial pressure (ICP) or exhaustion in airway obstruction (e.g. COPD).
Tachypnoeamay be due to airway obstruction, asthma, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism (PE), pneumothorax, pulmonary oedema, heart failure, or anxiety.
What are common causes of hypoxaemia?
PE Aspiration COPD Asthma Pulmonary oedema
What is part of the general inspection of the breathing?
At the end of the bed, look for:
- Cyanosis
- Shortness of breath
- Cough
- Stridor
- Cheyne-Stokes respiration
- Kussmaul’s respiration
What is Cheyne-Stokes respiration?
Cyclical apnoeas, with varying depth of inspiration and rate of breathing.
May be caused by stroke, raised intracranial pressure, pulmonary oedema, opioid toxicity, hyponatraemia or carbon monoxide poisoning.
What is Kussmaul’s respiration?
Deep, sighing respiration associated with metabolic acidosis (e.g. diabetic ketoacidosis)
What is part of the tracheal position inspection of the breathing?
Gently assess theposition of the trachea, which should becentral
Deviation away: tension pneumothorax or large effusions
Deviation towards: lobar collapse and pneumonectomy
How would you assess chest expansion?
Assess the patient’schest expansionlooking for evidence ofreduced chest wall movement.
Reduced chest expansion may indicate underlying pathology:
- Symmetrical:pulmonary fibrosis reduces lung elasticity, restricting overall chest expansion.
- Asymmetrical: pneumothorax, pneumonia and pleural effusion can all cause ipsilateral reduced chest expansion.
What does percussion of the chest tell you?
Dullness:suggests increased tissue density (e.g. cardiac dullness, consolidation, tumour, lobar collapse).
Stony dullness:typically caused by an underlying pleural effusion.
Hyper-resonance: the opposite of dullness, suggestive of decreased tissue density (e.g. pneumothorax).
What does auscultation of the chest tell you?
- Bronchial breathing (consolidation)
- Quiet/reduced breath sounds (effusion/pneumothorax)
- Wheeze: COPD, asthma, bronchiectasis
- Stridor (including foreign body inhalation (acute) and subglottic stenosis (chronic))
- Coarse crackles: pneumonia, bronchiectasis, pulmonary oedema
- Fine end-inspiratory crackles: pulmonary fibrosis