In this video I'm going to walk you through the pathophysiology of shock and put it into
simple steps for you to follow.
So make sure to stick around for the whole video, because you're finally going to understand
shock after this.
What's up my friend, Christina here with nursingschoolofsuccess.com and today in this video, we're talking about
the pathophysiology of shock.
And before we get started, make sure to hit that subscribe button and click the bell so
you never miss a video to help you raise your grades and have more free time in nursing
school.
So what is shock?
All shock really means is there is a lack of blood flow that cause the organs to fail.
So something happened that causes the organs to not get enough blood.
Maybe there's not enough blood in the body from a trauma, or maybe the blood just can't
GET to those organs, like when the heart just isn't pumping like it should be.
So really any time there isn't enough blood getting to the organs, the organs get very
unhappy, and it can lead to shock.
Now, I've put the pathophysiology of shock into simple steps for you to follow.
Now you won't see these steps anywhere else, in a textbook or anything.
I just made them up to help you learn this faster and easier.
So here's a step-by-step breakdown of what's going on during shock.
Step number 1: there is a trigger that decreases blood flow and causes the shock to begin,
things like the heart isn't pumping, or there is a hemorrhage so there's not enough blood
volume volume in the body.
There are a whole lot of possible causes for this, but it all boils down to one thing:
there isn't enough blood flow going to the organs.
So in step 1, there is not enough blood flow through the body to keep all of the organs
happy.
Now, step number 2: The body goes into defense mode.
And the fancy name for this is "compensatory mechanisms."
So the compensatory mechanisms kick in, things like the heart rate increases to try to get
more blood to the organs, aldosterone is released to help the kidneys retain water to help increase
blood volume, and the blood vessels constrict to try to keep the blood pressure up.
All of these things are trying to help increase blood flow to the organs.
If these compensatory mechanisms don't help to increase blood flow to the organs, then
metabolic acidosis can occur, which is step number 3.
Obviously, the body can't function without oxygen for very long.
There is actually a cellular process called anaerobic metabolism that the body has to
help it function temporarily even when it doesn't have oxygen.
Isn't that crazy?!
So the organs and tissues can survive temporarily, even without enough oxygen.
Of course, this can't go on forever, and it has some pretty serious consequences, namely,
metabolic acidosis.
As anaerobic metabolism occurs, lactate or lactic acid is created as a biproduct, and
lactic acid is, (you guessed it) an ACID.
This causes the pH level to drop and the blood becomes acidic, leading the metabolic acidosis.
This further impairs the body's ability to function.
And finally, step 4 of shock is organ failure, or multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (or
MODS for short) which happens when 2 or more organs fail.
So up until this point, the blood is not circulating properly in the body leading to a lack of
blood flow, the compensatory mechanisms are triggered, and metabolic acidosis is occurring,
which is making it even harder for blood and oxygen to get to the organs.
And the organs start to fail and die.
So the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, everything will stop functioning simply because
there is not enough blood flow and oxygen to them.
So that's your simple, 4 step breakdown of the pathophysiology of shock.
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