Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

ANSWER

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a rare blood clotting disorder that easily makes bleeding uncontrollable. The disease affects many people and can be life-threatening for those who have suffered traumatic injuries.  A 30-year-old presenting with acute trauma may have had injuries on their head, burns, or severe tissue damage. This essay will discuss DIC in a 30-year-old individual with acute trauma and sepsis and cancer patients.

Discuss the clotting mechanism

The clotting signal in DIC released from the affected cells, those at the site of injury, results in a response where blood vessels are narrowed and a little bit sticky to prevent excessive blood loss. This also helps the platelets to stick together and cause the development of a blood clot that limits any more loss of blood through the site of trauma. The platelets change in shape and size and coagulate to form a platelets plug. Under normal conditions, Fibrin, an important clotting factor, creates a mesh on the site of injury to hold the platelets together and form a red blood cell clot.

In DIC, the high formation of blood clots in the acute stages of trauma translates to a reduction in the effectiveness of clotting factors, thus uncontrollable bleeding is experienced in the later stages. Patients that experience DIC with a fibrinolytic phenotype in their initial stages of trauma are later affected by its change to a thrombotic one. This ultimately leads to the development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Coagulation is experienced in the early phases of trauma as a result of either the trauma or the interventions administered after a patient is exposed to trauma. the Acute Coagulopathy of Traumatic Shock, endothelial cells are triggered by the shock to release thrombomodulin, which is readily soluble. The soluble thrombomodulin mixes with thrombin and results in the formation of the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex. This complex suppresses the prothrombinase complex as it activates proteins. This also leads to reduced production and release of thrombin.