Nursing Statement for Alcohol Withdrawal

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I'm working on a careplan for a pt who was admitted for hematemesis, but his main issue is withdrawal. I have my NANDA diagnoses (Risk for injury r/t alcohol withdrawal), but I'm having issues finishing the "as evidenced by" part of the statement. I'm just not sure what the cellular level of alchol withdrawal entails, and my textbook isn't helpful for this particular diagnoses. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

While ETOH Withdrawal can be dangerous, so can hematemesis. Are you sure the withdrawal is the main issue at the moment? Both need to be treated but I think you can't treat withdrawal if you don't have a man with blood in the tank. Just my two cents.

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

I don't thing that you really need to worry much about things at the cellular level... a withdrawing drunk puking blood has major issues at the organ-system level.

As evidenced by...

Refractory tachycardia, fullness in the head, auditory and visual disturbances or hallucinations, tremors, altered mentation, etc... heading down the path toward full-on delirium tremens and a trip to the ICU but treatable and possibly not even admission depending on the the response to initial treatment.

Tachycardia, hypotension, elevated LFTs, low H&H, vomiting BRB, pallor, etc... a GI bleed is the real deal and considered to be life-threatening until proven otherwise... perhaps varices, perhaps a bleeding ulcer... either way, large-bore lines, blood transfusion, likely an NGT, and likely an emergent endoscopy.

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