Recognition of illness/condition by smell?

[Misstika]

Hello,

I'm a current LPN student. I'm currently in Med-Surg and trying to remember common signs and symptoms of common conditions. I know my question might sound weird, but while studying, I was wondering...are there alot of conditions that can be recognized by a smell? Diabetic Ketoacidosis has the fruity or acetone smell as a sign and with wounds you can sometimes smell infections. Just was wondering are there other conditions that has specific smells as a symptom?

Thanks

[EllaBella1, BSN]

Cdiff. Once you smell it a few times you will be able to smell it from a mile away.

[smf0903]

GI bleeds. I've never been able to smell CDiff (and I'm ok with that LOL), but a GI bleed I can smell a mile away.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

DKA (and other kinds of severe metabolic acidosis with hypermetabolism): "nail polish" like, unpleasant "chemical" smell, mostly from mouth.

Liver failure: strange, very unpleasant sweetish smell, mostly from mouth. Some people describe it as "rotten apple" but for me it is more like fresh meat. It causes impression of patient being dirty doesn't matter how much you clean him; I saw CNAs "diagnosing" patients because they wondered why the guy smelled like that right after bath and clean bed.

Renal failure: "old urine" smell from everywhere.

P. aerugenosa: characteristic smell and greenish color of wound or sputum

Melena: dark maroon stool and unmisticable odor

C.diff: liquid diarrhea and other awful, yet "diagnostic" smell

Change of smell during tracheal suction toward extremely bad, "rotten" odor, no improvement after intense mouth hygiene: almost diagnostic for lung abscess development.

[Misstika]

Thank you for the responses. During my clinicals last semester, I was assigned a patient with C. Diff. Initially he was hospitalized and transfered to the nursing home where I had clinicals. The smell that you refer to, is it from their stools? Its kind of weird, but while I cared for him, he never had to use the restroom. He had a foley and whenever I asked if he had to poop, he didn't.

[Fiona59]

Thank you for the responses. During my clinicals last semester, I was assigned a patient with C. Diff. Initially he was hospitalized and transfered to the nursing home where I had clinicals. The smell that you refer to, is it from their stools? Its kind of weird, but while I cared for him, he never had to use the restroom. He had a foley and whenever I asked if he had to poop, he didn't.

There are strains of cdiff that are odourless. The last Cdiff patient I cared for had orange, almost gelatinous, odour free feces.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

Head and neck cancers have a peculiar odor. Hard to describe, it just a very unpleasant odor. After caring for a couple of people with this type of cancer, we could walk past a room and ID the odor.

Of course gangrene has a bad odor.

I had a patient who had an aspergillus infection in her lungs and she had a musty, stale odor about her. It was worse when she started coughing up blood.

[AceOfHearts<3]

Don't forget yeast. I can smell when a patient is developing yeast before I can see the impact on the skin most of the time.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

End stage renal disease can have a foul odor on the skin. Not all have it, but have seen with some

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Chorioamnionitis. Never misdiagnosed it based on smell.

[LovingLife123]

A patient with a bad head bleed will often get Neuro Breath.

[saskrn]

Melena. I've worked on floors where you could literally smell it as soon as you stepped off the elevator. I swear that scent sticks to everything!