Acid-Base Case Study: Metabolic Acidosis Assignment Paper

Acid-Base Disturbances
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The acid-base disturbance the woman from the case study is suffering from is metabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis is whereby there is a primary reduction in bicarbonate (HCO3). This is usually followed by carbon dioxide partial pressure compensatory reduction. The Ph is usually low or slightly below subnormal. Depending on the availability or unavailability of unmeasured anions in the serum, metabolic acidosis can be termed as low or normal. The common causes are renal failure, lactic acid, and ketones accumulation as well as the GI loss and ingestion of toxin or drug. In severe cases, the symptoms and signs of metabolic acidosis are hyperpnoea, nausea and vomiting, and lethargy.
From the brief discussion of the disorder above, the woman, as mentioned earlier has a metabolic acidosis disturbance. This is because, basing from the above description, she has the following symptoms that are concurrent with the symptoms of the mentioned disturbance. She is vomiting severally which is a common symptom of metabolic acidosis. She has difficulty in keeping food or liquids down thus the dehydration as well as fainting. The artery blood gas test revealed otherwise because of the overdose of the antacids she had taken before being taken to the hospital.
Basically, the main cause of metabolic acidosis is the overproduction of acids in the body. It can also be as a result of kidneys failing to remove efficiently, enough acids from the body. There are three types of metabolic acidosis caused by different factors; the diabetic acidosis, the lactic acidosis and the hyperchloremic acidosis (Laura, 2015). The diabetic acidosis is caused by the buildup of ketones which are acidic substances. It occurs mainly with diabetes type 1 and is called diabetic ketoacidosis. Lactic acidosis comes as a result of the building up of lactic acid in the body. The buildup might be due to the following; liver failure, alcohol, intensive exercise, cancer, medication like salicylates, seizure and lacking oxygen for a very long time. The lack of oxygen may be due to heart failure, shock or anemia in severe conditions. However, there are still other causes of metabolic acidosis which include; severe dehydration, heart disease and poisoning by ethylene glycol, aspirin or methanol.
With the presence of metabolic acidosis, the renal and the respiratory systems will try to compensate. In the respiratory compensation, VA is stimulated due to low PHa. This results in the reduction of PaCO2. This reduct...