Pulmonary Toilet? Huh???

[kukukajoo]

Has anyone ever heard this term used? I had never heard it before lecture today and I am flabbergasted! Any explanation and if anyone knows where this term comes from would be greatly appreciated.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

I too love Mucinex as its active ingredient is Guaifenesin 600 mg as extended-release tablet...much easier than needing to take liquid prep every 4 hours.

use with caution:

*Mucinex D: contains Guaifenesin plus Pseudophedrine 60 mg (makes some people hyper/ heart palpitations) and

*Mucinex DM: contains Guaifenesin plus Dextromethorpan cough suppressant

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/DVH/Uses/0,3915,306%7CHumibid,00.html

Re toilet or toilette......only seen "Pulmonary toilet" in nursing and medical literature; wouldn't be suprised if we corupted the name

[rngreenhorn]

OMG! I have never heard of pulmonary toilet. It sounds so funny! But there is one phrase that I use quite often in my own charting that others think is funny: rectal vault. As in, "Upon digital examination of the rectal vault, this nurse found large, hard stool".

Ah yes, the "rectal vault", also known as the "loading dock."

But, not to be confused with Al Capone's vault. Let hope we never see a Geraldo Rivera special in which he is about to discover the contents of the rectal vault.

But, I digress. Remember never to flush the contents of the rectal vault in the pulmonary toilet.

Cheers.

[jill48, ASN, RN]

Ah yes, the "rectal vault", also known as the "loading dock."

But, not to be confused with Al Capone's vault. Let hope we never see a Geraldo Rivera special in which he is about to discover the contents of the rectal vault.

But, I digress. Remember never to flush the contents of the rectal vault in the pulmonary toilet.

Cheers.

:rotfl:

[blueheaven]

Crumping, crashing and burning, circling the drain. Our morgue is on 4D so sometimes we say they were transferred to 4D. There is another term we use here... DFO. Done fell over (off). This refers to people who fall over and someone decides to call a code blue. This happens usually in the morning after people have been seen in the methadone clinic and waiting for their primary care appt. We get there and they are still breathing etc...nurse A "Did they make it?" nurse B "Sure! It was a DFO!"

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

I have heard that this is a strictly local term (Pittsburghese):

Ceased to breathe (died)

[AvidExplorer]

This is basically a catch-all phrase, meaning anything & everything from incentive spirometry to chest percussion to postural drainage. The idea behind pneumonia prevention, cystic fibrosis treatment, etc, is to clear the lungs of fluid and secretions. Gravity being what it is, positioning, encouraging pts to cough, deep breathe, & use IS are all considered pulmonary toileting. Chest percussion (cupping your hands and pounding over the lung fields) and suctioning are also methods used, particularly with pts who are unable to assist much in the process. A lot of the older docs still use this terminology, so it is good to know what it means!!!!

[jstbreathe]

"you can do something called "incentive spirometry" which is kind of a lung exercise. You breathe into a device with a ball that bounces up when you blow. The object is to blow hard enough that the ball bounces higher. This is supposed to keep your airways open (by making you breathe forcefully)"

THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG!!

IS= SLOW DEEP BREATH!!!!!!

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Good , agressive pulmonary toilet often helps a crumping patient

By the same token, when ordered on a frail elderly pt with low platelets/on blood thinners...it can lead the stable pt into "circling the drain".