Asphyxiation - Kashi

When considering the process of illness and the resulting death, even if a person is recognized as being in a state of death, appropriate measures can be taken to reversibly return the person to a state in which vital phenomena are recognized, and this is called asphyxiation. Diseases are classified into many categories by the World Health Organization (WHO), including those affecting the digestive tract, blood, hepatobiliary, nervous, respiratory, circulatory, renal, endocrine, collagen disease, and others, but each disease shows different basic pathological conditions in the process leading to death, and these are called causes of death. Examples of causes of death include exhaustion, respiratory failure, heart failure, central nervous system disorders, anemia (hypoxia), metabolic disorders such as water and electrolyte disorders, shock, and accidents. Even if breathing and cardiac functions stop completely due to shock or anesthesia, and the person falls into a state of death, it is possible to restore these functions, that is, to put the person into a state of asphyxiation, by immediately taking appropriate measures such as artificial respiration and cardiac massage. The state immediately before death is called the agonal period.

[Yutaka Watanabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

疾病と、その結果としての死との過程を考えた場合、死の状態と認識されても、適切な処置などによって可逆的に生活現象を認める状態に戻ることがあり、これを仮死とよぶ。疾病はWHO（世界保健機関）分類により、消化管系、血液系、肝胆道系、神経系、呼吸器系、循環器系、腎(じん)、内分泌、膠原(こうげん)病、その他など、多種に分類されるが、いずれの疾病も死に至る過程では、異なった基本的病態を示すわけで、これを死因とよんでいる。死因には、消耗、呼吸不全、心不全、中枢障害、貧血（低酸素）、水・電解質などの代謝異常、ショック、事故などの例があげられる。このうち、ショック、麻酔などによって呼吸、心機能が完全に停止し死の状態に陥っても、ただちに人工呼吸、心臓マッサージなどの適切な処置をとることによって、それらの機能を取り戻すこと、つまり仮死の状態にすることが可能となる。なお、死直前の状態を死戦期とよんでいる。

［渡辺　裕］

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