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Gasping for Relief Alexander De Nesnera, MD, DFAPA, and David G

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Gasping for Relief Alexander De Nesnera, MD, DFAPA, and David G Cases That Test Your Skills Gasping for relief Alexander de Nesnera, MD, DFAPA, and David G. Folks, MD, DFAPA How would you While in the hospital receiving treatment for re-emerging handle this case? paranoia, Ms. A, age 62, chokes on a hot dog and dies a few days Visit CurrentPsychiatry.com to input your answers later. How could this have been prevented? and see how your colleagues responded CASE Food issues to provide rescue breathing are unproduc- Ms. A, age 62, has a 40-year history of paranoid tive because a foreign body obstructs Ms. A’s schizophrenia, which has been well controlled airway. A staff member continues abdominal with olanzapine, 20 mg/d, for many years. thrusts once Ms. A is on the ground. She has Two weeks ago, she stops taking her medica- no pulse, and CPR is initiated. tion and is brought to a state-run psychiatric Emergency medical technicians arrive hospital by law enforcement officers because within 7 minutes and suction a piece of hot of worsening paranoia and hostility. She is dog from Ms. A’s trachea. She is then taken to a disheveled, intermittently denudative, and nearby emergency department, where neuro- confused. Ms. A has type II diabetes, gastro- logic examination reveals signs of brain death. esophageal reflux disease, obesity (body mass Ms. A dies a few days later. The cause of index of 34.75 kg/m2), and poor dentition. She death is respiratory and cardiac failure second- has no history of substance abuse. ary to choking and foreign body obstruction. During the first 2 days in the hospital A review of Ms. A’s history reveals she had past Ms. A refuses to eat, stating that the food episodes of choking and a habit of rapidly in- is “poisoned,” but accepts 1 oral dose of ar- gesting large amounts of food (tachyphagia). ipiprazole, 25 mg. On hospital day 3, Ms. A is less hostile and eats dinner with the other Which of the following are risk factors for patients. A few minutes after beginning her choking in mentally ill patients? meal, Ms. A abruptly stands up and puts her a) poor dentition hands to her throat. She looks frightened, b) tachyphagia and cannot speak. c) parkinsonism A staff member asks Ms. A if she is choking d) all of the above and she nods. Because the psychiatric hospital does not have an emergency room, the staff The authors’ observations call 911, and a staff member gives Ms. A back The term “café coronary” describes sudden blows, but no food is forced out. Next, nurs- unexpected death caused by airway obstruc- ing staff start abdominal thrusts (Heimlich tion by food.1 In 1975, Henry Heimlich de- maneuver) without success. Ms. A then loses Dr. de Nesnera is associate professor of psychiatry, Dartmouth consciousness and the staff lowers her to the Medical School, and associate medical director, New Hampshire ground. The nurse looks in Ms. A’s mouth, but Hospital; Dr. Folks is professor of psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical Current Psychiatry School, and chief medical officer, New Hampshire Hospital, 86 October 2010 can’t see what is blocking her throat. Attempts Concord, NH. Cases That Test Your Skills scribed the abdominal thrusting maneuver Table 1 recommended to prevent these fatalities.2 Risk factors for choking For more than a century, choking has been recognized as a cause of death in individu- in mentally ill patients als with severe mental illness.3 An analysis Age (>60) of sudden deaths among psychiatric in- Impaired swallowing (schizophrenia patients patients in Ireland found that choking ac- are at greater risk) counted for 10% of deaths over 10 years.4 Parkinsonism An Australian study reported that indi- Poor dentition viduals with schizophrenia had 20-fold Schizophrenia greater risk of death by choking than the Tachyphagia (rapid eating) general population.5 Another study found Tardive dyskinesia the mortality rate attributable to choking Obesity Clinical Point was 8-fold higher for psychiatric inpatients Source: Reference 11 Schizophrenia than the general population,6 and a study in the United States reported that for every patients may exhibit 1,000 deaths among psychiatric inpatients, increase appetite and food craving, which impaired swallowing 0.6 were caused by asphyxia,7 which is 100 in turn may lead to overeating and tachy- mechanism and times greater than the general population phagia. In addition, many individuals pica behavior, which 8 reported in the same time. suffering from severe mental illness have increases the risk Physiological mechanisms associated poor dentition, which could make chew- with impaired swallowing include: ing food difficult.19 Psychiatric patients are of choking • dopamine blockade, which could pro- more likely to be obese, which also increas- duce central and peripheral impair- es the risk of choking. ment of swallowing9 • anticholinergic effect leading to im- Which strategies could help prevent choking paired esophageal motility in patients with schizophrenia? • impaired gag reflex.10 a) training staff on the proper use of ab- Multiple factors increase mentally ill in- dominal thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) dividuals’ risk of death by choking (Table b) prescribing injectable antipsychotic 1).11 Patients with schizophrenia may ex- medications hibit impaired swallowing mechanism, c) using 2 antipsychotic agents to address irrespective of psychotropic medications.12 psychotic symptoms Schizophrenia patients also could exhibit d) educating mentally ill patients at risk for pica behavior—persistent and culturally choking about safe eating habits and developmentally inappropriate inges- tion of non-nutritive substances. Examples of pica behavior include ingesting rolled OUTCOME Prevention strategies can lids13 and coins14,15 and coprophagia.16 New Hampshire Hospital’s administration Pica behavior increases the risk for chok- implemented a plan to increase the staff’s ing, and has been implicated in deaths of awareness of choking risks in mentally ill individuals with schizophrenia.17 patients. Nurses complete nutrition screens Medications with dopamine blocking along with the initial nursing database as- and anticholinergic effects may increase sessment on all patients during the admission choking risk.18 These medications could process, and are encouraged to contact reg- produce extrapyramidal side effects and istered dieticians for a nutrition review and parkinsonism, which might impair swal- assessment if a psychiatric patient is thought Current Psychiatry lowing. Psychotropic medications could to be at risk for choking. Registered dieticians Vol. 9, No. 10 87 Cases That Test Your Skills Table 2 The authors’ observations The following recommendations may help American Red Cross guidelines minimize or prevent choking events in in- for treating a conscious, patient units: choking adult • Ensure all staff who care for patients Send someone to call 911 are trained regularly on emergency first Lean person forward and give 5 back blows aid for choking victims, including proper with heel of your hand use of abdominal thrusts (Heimlich ma- Give 5 quick abdominal thrusts by placing the neuver) (Table 2).20 thumbside of your fist against the middle of • Educate staff about which patients the victim’s abdomen, just above the navel. may be at higher risk for choking. Grab your fist with the other hand. In obese or pregnant adults, place your fist in the middle of • Assess for a history of choking inci- Clinical Point the breastbone dents and/or the presence of swallowing Continue giving 5 back blows and 5 problems in patients at risk for choking. Ensure that all staff abdominal thrusts until the object is forced • Supervise meals and instruct staff to who care for patients out or the person breathes or coughs on his look for patients who display dysphagia. or her own are trained regularly • Consider ordering a swallowing eval- Source: Reference 20 on emergency first aid uation performed by a speech therapist in for choking victims patients who manifest dysphagia. work with nursing staff to promptly complete • Avoid polypharmacy of drugs with nutrition assessments and address eating-re- anticholinergic and/or potent dopamine lated problems. blocking effects, such as olanzapine, ris- Direct care staff were reminded that all peridone, or haloperidol. inpatient units have a battery-powered, por- • Teach safe eating habits to patients table compact suction unit available that can who are at risk for choking. be used in a choking emergency. The hospi- • Contact outpatient care providers of tal’s cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructors patients at risk for choking and inform emphasize the importance of the abdominal them of the need for further education on thrust maneuver during all staff training safe eating habits, a dietary evaluation, sessions. and/or a swallowing evaluation. The hospital’s administration and staff did Implementing these measures may re- not reach a consensus on whether physicians duce choking incidents and could save lives. should attempt a tracheotomy when other measures to dislodge a foreign object from a References 1. Haugen RK. The café coronary: sudden deaths in patient’s throat fail. Instead, the focus remains restaurants. JAMA. 1963;186:142-143. 2. Heimlich HJ. A life-saving maneuver to prevent food- on assessing and treating the clinical emer- choking. JAMA. 1975;234:398-401. gency and obtaining rapid intervention by 3. Hammond WA. A treatise on insanity and its medical relations. New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company; emergency medical technicians. 1883:724. Bottom Line Patients with serious mental illness—especially those who are elderly, have poor dentition and eating habits, or take antipsychotics with anticholinergic and/or dopamine blocking effects—are at increased risk of death by choking. In inpatient settings, institutional measures and increased staff training could reduce the risk of choking in psychiatric Current Psychiatry 88 October 2010 patients. Related Resources • Hwang SJ, Tsai SJ, Chen IJ, et al. Choking incidents among psychiatric inpatients: a retrospective study in Chutung Veterans General Hospital.
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