Question

A 3 month old infant who is extremely lethargic has had a cough, vomiting, and diarrhea for the past 3 days. Assessment reveals that he responds to pain, has mottled skin color, and a capillary refill time of 4 seconds. He has a blood pressure of 74/60 mm Hg, a pulse of 190 beats/min., and rapid respirations (60 breaths/min) without increased work of breathing. The tachycardia in this infant is most likely due to:

Answer 1

Answer: it is due to Hypovolemia

Explanation:

Hypovolemia is a low level of fluid in the body by decrease in the volume of circulation of  blood in the body making it difficult for such individual get nutrients and oxygen to the body causing vital organs to be at risk of harm. This could be as a result  of dehydration or blood loss from injury also freom difficulty absorbing fluids etc, This condition is  more common in babies and they present symptoms of  fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, weakness etc.

The effective  treatment here is  to replace fluids and control blood loss in case of injury. Replacing fluid can be done with rehydration therapy.