DIC syndrome

DIC syndrome /disseminated intravasal coagulation/ is one of the diseases, the treatment process of which is always laborious and long.

Disseminated intravasal coagulation is a hemostasis disorder in which so-called diffuse blood clotting takes place.

As a result of this disorder, platelets and microscopic blood clots accumulate, which block microcirculation and cause degenerative changes.

DIC syndrome always develops in meningococcal sepsis and less often in infections caused by gram-negative bacteria.

Most often this disease develops as an infectious-inflammatory complication.

There are several reasons for its occurrence. Above all, this is advanced lung damage or staphylococci, viral infectious diseases /herpes, hepatitis, smallpox, measles/.

The disease can also develop against the background of typhoid fever, after surgery to remove the spleen, rickettsial infections such as malaria, trypanosomiasis /African sleeping sickness/.

Disseminated intravasal coagulation can also be caused by hemolytic anemia or hemolytic poisons, as well as by severe tissue damage such as burns, trauma, and open fractures.

Less often, the disease can be caused by diabetes mellitus /if it occurs in a severe form/, radiation sickness and epilepsy.

The blockage of blood microcirculation and the formation of microthrombi can quickly spread throughout the circulatory system.

This process can prevail, as in individual organs, causing in them degenerative changes and subsequently dysfunction, or in individual parts of the body with the same consequences.

DIK syndrome can be acute, the spread of the disease takes place almost instantly, with subacute, that is, subacute, with slower progression, recurrent or chronic, when periods of exacerbation are followed by periods of attenuation, that is, remissions.

What are the symptoms?

The course of DIC syndrome goes through several phases:

• hypercoagulation and aggregation of platelets /1st phase, in which blood coagulability increases and microthrombi form/;

• transitional phase /2nd phase during which the number of platelets decreases/;

• deep hypocoagulation /3rd phase – sharp dysfunction of blood coagulation occurs/;

• restorative /4th and last phase, when the coagulability index is gradually normalized, but during this period there is a high probability of developing complications/;

The clinical picture of the DIC syndrome is described on the basis of these symptoms manifested by the main disease that is its cause /of the syndrome/.

The duration of each phase depends directly on the rates of progression of the causative disease itself.

The more acute the onset of the DIC-syndrome, the faster the 1st phase passes and the more pronounced the hypocoagulation.

At the same time, the manifestation of such a symptom as hemocoagulation shock is possible due to the sudden disruption of blood circulation.

Hemorrhagic syndrome is another symptom of disseminated intravasal coagulation.

Most often it occurs in the third phase of the course of the disease, but sometimes bleeding can be detected already during the second stage.

Since the DIC syndrome is characterized by generalized bleeding, the symptoms of this disease, of course, also include the appearance of subcutaneous hematomas and hemorrhages in the subcutaneous fatty tissues. Possible occurrence of nasal, intestinal, kidney and lung bleeding.

Treatment of DIC syndrome

It must be carried out in an intensive care unit. First of all, therapy is prescribed to treat the disease that caused the syndrome of disseminated intravascular coagulation.

In the treatment of infectious-inflammatory processes, antibacterial agents, i.e. antibiotics, are used.

And in shock states, intravenous infusion solutions are introduced into the patient’s body, which contribute to improving blood circulation.