{"id":2128,"date":"2019-07-05T20:52:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T20:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:57:16","slug":"inhalation-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/inhalation-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnosis of Inhalation Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"99c380e4b4a7b96c35d7ddf7dcb434e8\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MC 2019- Horizontal -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0127150553352455\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3806776041\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Inhalation injury can feature supraglottic thermal injury, chemical irritation of the respiratory tract, systemic toxicity due to agents such as carbon monoxide (CO) and cyanide, or a combination of these insults. The resultant inflammatory response may cause higher fluid resuscitation volumes, progressive pulmonary dysfunction, prolonged ventilator days, increased risk of pneumonia, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Diagnosis of Inhalation Injury<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are several modalities for confirming inhalation injury to include fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB), chest computed tomography (CT), carboxyhemoglobin measurement, radionuclide imaging with <sup>133<\/sup>Xenon, and pulmonary function testing. The following gradation of morbidity and mortality risk was seen in order of increasing risk: (1) patients without inhalation injury; (2) patients with inhalation injury by <sup>133<\/sup>Xenon scan only, but not by FOB; and (3) patients with inhalation injury by FOB. Also, presence of inhalation injury on FOB predicted risk of acute lung injury and the need for increased fluid resuscitation volumes.<\/p>\n<p>The Abbreviated Injury Score grading scale for inhalation injury on bronchoscopy has been shown to correlate with an increase in mortality as well impaired gas exchange.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Injury Score grading scale for inhalation injury on bronchoscopy<\/strong><\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\" border=\"1\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Grade<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Class<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Description<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\">0<\/td>\n<td>No injury<\/td>\n<td>Absence of carbonaceous deposits, erythema, edema, bronchorrhea, or obstruction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\">1<\/td>\n<td>Mild injury<\/td>\n<td>Minor or patchy areas of erythema, carbonaceous deposits, bronchorrhea, or bronchial obstruction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\">2<\/td>\n<td>Moderate injury<\/td>\n<td>Moderate degree of erythema, carbonaceous deposits, bronchorrhea, or bronchial obstruction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\">3<\/td>\n<td>Severe injury<\/td>\n<td>Severe inflammation with friability, copious carbonaceous deposits, bronchorrhea, or obstruction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\">4<\/td>\n<td>Massive injury<\/td>\n<td>Evidence of mucosal sloughing, necrosis, endoluminal obstruction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Deutsch CJ, Tan A, Smailes S, Dziewulski P. The diagnosis and management of inhalation injury: An evidence based approach.\u00a0Burns. 2018 Aug;44(5):1040-1051. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/29398078\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">[Medline]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Walker PF, Buehner MF, Wood LA, Boyer NL, Driscoll IR, Lundy JB, Cancio LC, Chung KK. Diagnosis and management of inhalation injury: an updated review.\u00a0Crit Care. 2015 Oct 28;19:351. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/26507130\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">[Medline]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Erickson MJ, Enkhbaatar P, Lee JO. Inhalation Injury. Semin Plast Surg. 2024 Apr 4;38(2):93-96. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/38746701\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[Medline]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Created Jul 03, 2019.<br \/>\nUp-date Feb 3, 2026.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry, this entry is only available in Espa\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[123,13,152,150,149,151],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-care","tag-diagnosis","tag-diagnostico","tag-inhalacion","tag-inhalation","tag-injury","tag-lesion"],"modified_by":"Guillermo Firman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10613,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/10613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}