SURGICAL SHOCK

Postoperative Shock

A type of shock that occurs as a result of a surgical procedure.

Shock is a medical emergency in which the organs and tissues of the body are not receiving an adequate flow of blood. This deprives the organs and tissues of oxygen (carried in the blood) and allows the buildup of waste products. Shock can result in serious damage or even death.

Shock is caused by three major categories of problems: cardiogenic (meaning problems associated with the heart's functioning); hypovolemic (meaning that the total volume of blood available to circulate is low); and septic shock (caused by overwhelming infection, usually by bacteria).

Homeopathic Remedies & Homeopathy Treatment for Shock During & After Surgery, Post operative Shock, Surgical Shock

Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines are selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution etc. A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) is also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions. The medicines given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each medicine may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications are also taken into account for selecting a remedy. To study any of the following remedies in more detail, please visit our Materia Medica section. None of these medicines should be taken without professional advice.

Homeopathic Remedies

#Veratrum album [Verat]
pictures a typical case of surgical shock, the sudden prostration, a sudden change coming over the patient. Cold sweat, body cold, especially extremities, pallor, features distorted, relaxation complete; also some tetanic spasms. The breathing is shallow, almost imperceptible, yet there is a physical restlessness. It is a remedy employed by our best surgeons. Dr. Mitchell, of Chicago, said of it that it stimulates the heart quite as promptly as a hypodermic of strychnia. It must not be given too low; it is dangerous to use it in these conditions lower than the 3X.

#Camphora
Like Veratrum this remedy produces sudden prostration, coldness and feeble pulse, the surface is cold and clammy, but there is a tendency to a cyanosed condition or blueness of the skin and lips. The shock seems even more profound than that of Veratrum, the breath is cold, the pulse rapid, tongue and lips tremble and the patient seems on the brink of dissolution. Respiration is slow and sighing. The countenance is hippocratic, the tip of the nose and cheek bones are cold. There is burning internally after operation and the blood pressure low Camphora IX is well indicated. It precedes Veratrum album. Arsenicum has burning and would suit well the erythistic type of shock with its anguish and restlessness. Digitalis. Slow, irregular, weak pulse, patient bluish-pale, sinking at epigastrium.

#Carbo vegetables [Carb-v]
is suitable to collapsed conditions of the most intense and desperate character. A stupor is produced hardly yielding to stimulants. It is even more of a cyanotic condition than that of Camphora. The circulation seems to be arrested and stagnant, the pulse is scarcely perceptible and the breathing is rattling. It is all the more indicated when the shock results from the loss of blood or in debilitated patients where depletion causes the causes the shock rather than a nervous condition. Cinchona is similar in this latter condition, but there is some nervous agitation with this remedy and an anxious manner. Arnica. Traumatic shock, nausea, pains, pulse slow and weak, and patient in a stupor or unconscious.

#Opium [Op]
Here we have almost complete insensibility, patient relapses into a stupor, blue, livid face, loud breathing, slowing cerebral pressure; the pulse, the respiration and the coldness will distinguish Camphora here. Hypericum where the shock is due to pain, especially to injuries of parts rich in nerves.