What are the different kinds?
What’s anaphylactic shock?
Is that different than the kind you get from some kind of trauma?
Doesn’t shock happen to someone who has a bad infection?
Why is it so important to keep someone from going into shock?
What’s the straight dope on shock?
IANADoctor but my brother-in-law who is told me shock is a condition where the body does not get enough blood flow. Although there are many different types of shock (anaphylactic as mentioned above which is an allergic reaction) the underlying result is the disrupted blood flow. Shock can vary in degrees of severity but it is serious to life threatening and needs medical attention.
One of the confusing things about the term “shock” is that it’s often used inappropriately to describe people who have recently suffered an extreme psychological shock, e.g. seeing a loved one killed.
“Shock” as a medical term refers to a state of “inadequate tissue perfusion” which, as Whack-a-Mole said is basically poor blood flow.
Common causes of shock include:
Loss of blood= hypovolemic shock
Heart attack, pulmonary embolus, tension pneumothorax, pericardial tamponade= cardiogenic shock
Allergies like shell fish, antibiotics, bee stings= anaphylactic shock
Overwhelming infection= septic shock
All lead to a downward spiral, but have different physiological mechanisms.
Hypovolemic shock is the easiest to understand. The amount of blood in the vascular system isn’t sufficent to fill the heart, leading to vital organs being deprived of oxygen.
Cardiogenic shock the heart itself can no longer pump hard enough to supply the end organs with oxygen. There is enough blood, but no way to circulate it.
Anaphylactic shock causes the blood vessels to relax to the point that, even though there is enough blood and the heart can pump, the blood pools uselessly in the expanded vessels.
Septic shock also has the component of relaxed vessels with the addition of fluid leaking from the vessels into the interstitial space (this is the space between the cells)
There is also spinal shock that occurs in patients with spinal cord injury. The nerve impulse telling the vessels to contract is interupted, causing the blood to pool in the vessels.
These are very simplified explainations.
Question: is “schock” specifically a whole-body thing? Does it make sense to speak of, say, someone’s hand being “in shock” (a patient whose hand was crushed by a heavy object).
Don’t forget…
In medical terms, shock describes the state in which insufficient oxygen is perfusing to body tissues. This state can be caused by failures in the larger systems that transport oxygen. These are the fluid (blood), pipes (blood vessels), pump (heart), source (lungs), and controller (nervous system).
Shock from injury/trauma/accident is often caused by an emergency situation with the fluid. When you lose a lot of blood, you can’t carry as much oxygen. The blood loss can be external or internal.
For example, with a mid-shaft femur fracture you can lose up to 1/5 of your total blood supply to internal bleeding. A ruptured spleen can cause a similar amount of internal bleeding into your belly. In both of these situations, a patient may go into shock quite rapidly.
One of the problems with shock is that our bodies respond in ways that aren’t always helpful. That’s why outside intervention is needed. Shock is the main reason that high-volume pure O2 is administered to accident victims. If we administer O2 at the same pressure and volume as the patient normally inhales air, we’re giving him or her 5 times as much oxygen as normal.
Many of the symptoms associated with heart attack are really symptoms of shock.
Electric shock isn’t the same as the other shocks referred to. Physical trauma is covered by the others (most likely hypovolemic shock). Not sure what you’re referring to re anaesthesia.
Nitpick: A tension pneumothorax occurs when one lung is damaged, creating a tear which acts as a valve. Air enters the pleural space and with each respiratory cycle, pleural space pressure increases, the damaged lung deflates, causing mediastinal shift, reduced respiratory volume, and greater difficulty breathing. The body system compromised is respiratory, not circulatory.
Actually KarlGauss has it exactly right (those whacky academic internists!) Fatality from tension pneumos come most frequently because the increasing shift in the mediastinal structures kinks off the aorta, dropping the blood pressure, and causing shock. Granted, compromised respirations are a problem, but it’s that hypovolemia that will get you in the end!
I respectfully disagree with your nitpick.
Sure, breathing is compromised, but shock develops because, as Wikipedia puts it:
(underline added for emphasis)
That should read “kinks off the Vena Cava”. My bad.
Holy smokes! A simulpost with Qad. (Hi pal!)
Hey, buddy! Howzitgoin! My kid has returned from Canada for Holiday break. But the call of the north will take her back, I’m sure! Any jobs for prison docs by you? 
BTW, KarlGauss! You using Wikipedia as a cite?? They should use you as a cite! 
Thank you, gentlemen. That isn’t what I was taught, but am always willing to learn. 