Obtundation
| Obtundation | |
|---|---|
| Specialty | Emergency medicine |
Obtundation refers to less than full alertness (altered level of consciousness), typically as a result of a medical condition or trauma.[1]
There is a huge range of potential causes including head injury, interruption of blood circulation, impaired oxygenation or carbon dioxide toxicity (hypercapnia), CNS infections, drug intoxication or withdrawal, post-seizure state, hypothermia, and metabolic derangements such as hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, and hypercalcaemic crisis.[2]
The root word, obtund, means "dulled or less sharp" cf. obtuse angle.
| This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |