title: [Acute asthma and coma in Emergency Department: a case report].
abstract: Acute asthma is a common medical emergency. The goals of therapy are therefore to remove hypoxaemia, improve airflow limitation and prevent death. We describe the case of a 51-year-old woman with asthma admitted to Emergency Department after complaining acute respiratory failure and coma. The improvement of respiratory failure, after administration of high concentration of oxygen, beta-2 agonist and corticosteroids, wasn't associated at improvement of consciousness. The deterioration of blood gases dont justified coma. Having a suspicion the patient takes some benzodiazepines, we administered flumazenil and the patient improved adequately.
authors.affiliation: U.O. di Pronto Soccorso, Ospedale Civile V. Cosentino, Cariati, Cosenza. dottvincenzo@yahoo.it
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vincenzo
authors.forename: Domenico Lorenzo
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Urso
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Curia
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scattarella
authors.forename: Cataldo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Formaro
authors.forename: Savina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sicilia
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications*; D003128:Coma / Q000209:etiology*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000150:complications*