Metabolic Acidosis: Causes and Nursing Interventions

00:00 Now metabolic acidosis is a decrease in bicarb.

00:05 The most often you'll see, metabolic acidosis and respiratory acidosis in your practice.

00:11 So these are the most common, respiratory acidosis and metabolic acidosis.

00:17 Now common causes of metabolic acidosis are renal failure, aspirin or antifreeze overdose, diarrhea or DKA.

00:26 Now we're serious about the antifreeze overdose, you might think like that is weird, but sadly, sometimes I seen homeless patients come in because they drink antifreeze So those are the most common causes of one of the most common metabolic acidosis, pH imbalances that you'll see.

00:44 Renal failure, aspirin antifreeze, diarrhea, DKA, so how do we fix it? We've got to fix the underlying cause right, we've got to address what threw them into this imbalance and you also might consider and bicarb IV.

00:58 So we can actually give bicarb as an IV medication.

01:01 What does the body do? It increases that respiratory rate.

01:06 Earlier we talked about in DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis), they have that Kussmaul's respirations, that deep and fast, rapid breathing rate so that helps you blow off CO2.

01:18 So we try to fix the underlying cause whatever is going on, Renal failure, we may look at dialysis, etcetera and the body responds by trying to increase the respiratory rate.