fresh water drowning
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Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
fresh water drowning
A type of drowning in which hypo-osmolar water compromises the surface tension of alveolar surfactant, causing an imbalance in the ventilation-perfusion–V/Q ratio, with a collapse of some alveoli, and both true–absolute, and relative–intrapulmonary shunting. See Drowning. Cf Salt water drowning.McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.