00:01
So let's wrap up this video
on myasthenia gravis.
00:05
It's a chronic autoimmune
neuromuscular disease.
00:10
It'll cause weakness
in the skeletal muscles
which help us breathe,
move parts of our body
including our arms and legs.
00:16
Now the hallmark of myasthenia gravis
is muscle weakness that gets worse
after periods of activity
and improves after periods of rest.
00:25
So you working
with the myasthenia gravis patient
is going to be really important
for them to understand this concept.
00:31
If they push themselves too much,
they're gonna kick themselves
into a myasthenia gravis exacerbation.
00:37
Now a degree of muscle weakness
including the myasthenia gravis
varies greatly from minor
to life-threatening respiratory problems.
00:45
We talked about six options
for diagnosis:
the exam,
blood tests which--
remember, if those are
might be helpful, might be not.
00:54
Electrodiagnostics,
I prefer the single fiber.
00:57
Diagnostic imaging,
looking for a thymoma.
01:00
And pulmonary function testing
to see where the patient stands
and the strengths
of their respiratory system.
01:05
So to treat it,
we can do the thymectomy.
01:08
Remember that might be helpful, possibly,
if the patient has a thymoma,
or even doesn't have a thymoma.
01:14
We can give medications
like anticholinesterase.
01:18
Those are the ones that are against
the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
01:22
Or we can give
immunosuppressive drugs.
01:25
So the two medications
we would consider:
anticholinesterase medications
or immunosuppressive drugs.
01:32
But, remember, that really knocks out
a patient's immune system
from just common diseases
we could normally fight off.
01:38
Plasmapheresis
and IV immunoglobulin
are the ones that involved
right into the vascular system.
01:44
Plasmapheresis,
you draw all the blood out,
put it through a machine,
filter out the bad antibodies,
put the plasma back
that's now clean and improved.
01:53
For IV immunoglobin,
we just inject that from antibodies
that were collected
from a pool of donors,
and we injected that to bump up
that person's immune system
in an appropriate manner.
02:05
Now, last, my myasthenic crisis
is a medical emergency.
02:09
So every nurse needs to recognize
what are the precursors,
what could throw a patient
into a myasthenic crisis.
02:16
Now I do know,
and we talked about,
that we don't always know
what the trigger is,
but we do know
what common triggers are.
02:23
So you being aware of what they are,
knowing what to do,
is really important
that could save someone's life.
02:30
Thank you for watching
our video today.