List of medical emergencies
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The following is a list of symptoms and conditions that signal or constitute a possible medical emergency and may require immediate first aid, emergency room care, surgery, or care by a physician or nurse. Please note that not all medical emergencies listed below are life-threatening; some conditions require medical attention in order to prevent significant and long-lasting effects on physical or mental health.
Injury and illness
- Abdominal pain, severe
- Appendicitis (leading to peritonitis)
- Bone fracture, compound
- Chest pain, acute
- Cholecystitis
- Drug overdose or withdrawal
- Ear injury
- Electric shock
- Gangrene
- Head trauma
- Hyperthermia (heat stroke or sunstroke)
- Hypothermia or frostbite
- Intestinal obstruction
- Pancreatitis
- Peritonitis
- Poisoning
- Food poisoning
- Venomous animal bite
- Ruptured spleen
- Septic arthritis
- Septicaemia blood infection
- Severe burn (including scalding and chemical burns)
- Spreading wound infection
- Suspected spinal injury
Infections
- Lyme disease infection
- Malaria infection
- Rabies infection
- Salmonella poisoning
Cardiac and circulatory
- Air embolism
- Aortic aneurysm (ruptured)
- Aortic dissection
- Bleeding
- Cardiac arrest
- Cardiac arrhythmia
- Cardiac tamponade
- Hypertensive emergency
- Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
- Subarachnoid hemorrhage
- Subdural hematoma, acute
- Ventricular fibrillation
Metabolic
- Acute renal failure
- Addisonian crisis (seen in those with Addison's disease)
- Dehydration, advanced
- Diabetic coma
- Electrolyte disturbance, severe (along with dehydration, possible with severe diarrhea or vomiting, chronic laxative abuse, and severe burns)
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- Lactic acidosis
- Malnutrition and starvation (as in extreme anorexia and bulimia)
- Thyroid storm
Neurological and psychiatric
- Attempted suicide, non-fatal
- Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
- Convulsion or seizure
- Meningitis
- Psychotic episode
- Suicidal ideation
- Syncope (fainting)
Ophthalmological
Respiratory
- Agonal breathing
- Asphyxia
- Asthma, acute
- Epiglottitis or severe croup
- Pneumothorax
- Pulmonary embolism
- Respiratory failure
Shock
- Anaphylaxis
- Cardiogenic shock
- Hypovolemic shock (due to hemorrhage)
- Neurogenic shock
- Obstructive shock (e.g., massive pulmonary embolism)
- Septic shock
Urological, andrological, gynecologic, and obstetric
- Eclampsia
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Gynecologic hemorrhage
- Obstetrical hemorrhage
- Paraphimosis
- Priapism
- Sexual assault (rape)
- Testicular torsion
- Urinary retention
Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content
Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
