Question

A client who is recovering from anesthesia following oral surgery for lip cancer is experiencing difficulty breathing deeply and coughing up secretions. Which of the following measures will help ease the client’s discomfort?

Answer 1

The client’s discomfort can be eased by elevating the head of the client’s bed

Explanation:

When the patient is unconscious under the anesthetic effect, it will be difficult to push the respiratory secretions out. This piling of secretions in the airways makes it difficult to breathe deeply. Hence, while recovering from the anesthesia, the patient will have increased urge to cough out the secretions. However, an oral cancer patient will have pain over the incisions in the mouth or lip which makes it more difficult to cough up the secretions out.  

Mouth irrigation procedures are done to help the patients to bring out the secretions and clear the airway. The client should be made to lie flat in the prone position and tilting the head sideward and the head of the bed should be elevated for faster drainage during mouth irrigation procedures .