If someone around you suddenly feels dizzy and nauseous, how should you provide first aid?

Author: Tang Qin, Deputy Secretary-General of the Science Popularization Expert Committee of the Chinese Medical Association, Researcher

Reviewer: Wang Changyuan, Chief Physician, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University

62-year-old Mr. Wang suddenly felt dizzy and pale, with cold limbs, cold sweats, tinnitus, hearing loss and other symptoms. He also felt nauseous and vomited twice. Doctors found that Mr. Wang had a disease called "cerebrovascular vertigo".

What is cerebrovascular vertigo? If you find someone around you has such symptoms, how should you quickly provide first aid?

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1. Causes of cerebrovascular vertigo

Cerebrovascular vertigo mainly refers to a type of vertigo caused by cerebrovascular disease, accounting for more than 50% of various types of vertigo.

Usually, cerebrovascular vertigo is prone to occur in summer and winter because the blood in the human body is thicker in these two seasons, and when a cerebrovascular accident occurs, it may cause cerebrovascular vertigo.

At present, the main factors causing cerebrovascular vertigo are the following three.

1. Labyrinthal stroke is also called labyrinthal artery thrombosis. When a patient is in a labyrinthal stroke state, insufficient blood supply in the body will cause sudden severe dizziness.

2. Wallenberg syndrome Also known as dorsolateral medullary syndrome, it is caused by occlusion of the branches of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery or vertebral artery supplying the lateral medulla oblongata. This is a relatively common type of cerebral infarction, and vertigo is one of its most common clinical symptoms.

3. Insufficient blood supply to the vertebral basilar artery system or cerebral infarction From a clinical point of view, insufficiency of blood supply to the vertebral basilar artery system is a relatively common ischemic cerebrovascular disease, and vertigo is its main clinical manifestation.

2. Symptoms of cerebrovascular vertigo

When it comes to the symptoms of cerebrovascular vertigo, we must first distinguish it from the symptoms of dizziness.

Dizziness, the most common symptoms include dizziness, head swelling, heaviness, blurred vision, etc. However, the symptoms of cerebrovascular vertigo are more serious than dizziness.

The most typical symptom of cerebrovascular vertigo is that the patient will suddenly experience severe rotational vertigo, which may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting, or in layman's terms, "feeling dizzy", accompanied by black vision, tinnitus and deafness, but the patient is conscious. Generally, the symptoms will gradually subside after 10 to 20 days.

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Therefore, if the patient experiences recurrent episodes of vertigo accompanied by deafness, tinnitus, stuffy ears, double hearing, nausea, vomiting, cold sweats, pale complexion, cold limbs and other symptoms, cerebrovascular vertigo can be initially considered and the patient needs to go to the hospital in time for accurate examination and treatment.

3. First aid measures for cerebrovascular vertigo

If you encounter a patient with cerebrovascular vertigo in your life, how should you give first aid? Specifically, there are 5 things to note.

1. If a patient is found fainted on the roadside, in a toilet or in a crowded place, the patient should be carefully carried to a spacious place. At the same time, the dense crowd should be evacuated to maintain ventilation and air flow.

2. Try to avoid long-distance transfer. This is because if the transfer time is long, it may increase the risk of accidents during the journey, which is not conducive to the stability of the patient's condition.

3. During the transfer, the vibration of the patient's body and head should be reduced as much as possible. Otherwise, the patient's condition may worsen due to repeated vibration, shaking, and bumps during the transfer.

4. Keep the patient's airway open. Clean any foreign matter or secretions in the patient's mouth or nasal cavity in time to avoid suffocation.

5. During the transfer, oxygen and emergency medicines can be carried so that the patient can be given oxygen or other emergency treatment. At the same time, the patient's consciousness, breathing, pupils, body temperature, pulse and blood pressure should be closely monitored. If the patient is found to have cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be performed immediately.

Compared with the treatment after the onset of the disease, the prevention of cerebrovascular vertigo is more important. For example, in summer and winter when the blood viscosity is high, you should pay attention to drinking more water; when getting up in the morning or in the middle of the night, you should not get up suddenly, but get up slowly to reduce the occurrence of accidents.

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References

【1】Zhang Chunhong. Records of Zhang Chunhong's acupuncture treatment. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Science and Technology Press, 2020.

【2】Deng Ying, Tang Xiaoping, Xiao Xinlan. Exploring the etiology of dorsolateral medullary syndrome based on imaging[J]. Journal of Clinical Radiology, 2021, 40(7):1276-1278.

【3】Zhang Yungan. Clinical effect and safety analysis of enteric-coated aspirin tablets combined with salvia miltiorrhiza and ligustrazine injection on vertebral basilar artery system blood supply insufficiency[J]. Jiangxi Medicine, 2021, 56(12):2324.

【4】Qin Mashu, Ma Shuran, Xiao Yanling. Home diet therapy and acupoint massage for common diseases. Beijing: Chemical Industry Press, 2021.