2, 3 Most COPD patients often have complications of multiple-organ insufficiency such as cardiac insufficiency 4– 7 which increases mortality risk and worsens survival, thereby presenting many therapeutic challenges to health-care providers.
However, this high-tech habitat is capable of reversing multiple organ-system insufficiency if the patient is able to tolerate the inherent stress of the environment.
Ten patients were admitted for respiratory failure related to viral pneumonitis, 1 for pulmonary edema with severe chronic coronary insufficiency, 1 for congenital adrenal insufficiency with reversible multiple organ failure, and 1 for status epilepticus.
A 52-year-old man admitted for pulmonary edema with severe coronary insufficiency died of multiple organ failure.
From the initial cohort, 29 patients died from relapse (n = 16), bronchiolitis obliterans and respiratory insufficiency (n = 1), multiple organ toxicity (n = 6), renal failure (n = 1), infection (n = 4) or due to unknown causes (n = 1).
They showed that the presence of relative adrenal insufficiency was predictive of multiple organ failure mortality.
Eight of these had acute respiratory distress syndrome, 6 had multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and 6 had acute respiratory insufficiency; the remainder had hemoptysis and/or dyspnea, according clinician notes in the medical charts.
In most cases multiple organ systems are affected, most patients especially suffer from pancreatic insufficiency and lung function problems.
The mortality can reach as high as 85% in the presence of a hyperadrenergic crisis [3 5], a life-threatening endocrine emergency leading to multiple organ failure, which is characterized by hypertensive crises, subsequent cardiogenic shock, pulmonary edema, acute liver and renal insufficiency, encephalopathy, and hyperthermia [2, 6].
She died of multiple organ failure.
