Technique for measuring blood pressure
Consider what is the technique for measuring blood pressure with a conventional mechanical tonometer.
- Manipulation is carried out in the position of the patient lying or sitting.
- We release the patient's hand from clothing.
- We place the patient's hand in a relaxed state with the palm up approximately at the level of the heart.
- The tonometer is placed at the same level with the patient's hand.
- We put a cuff on the patient’s shoulder so that one finger can be placed under it. Rubber tubes should be located below, at the level of the center of the elbow.
- The phonendoscope is placed in the center of the cubital fossa.
- Close the valve on the rubber bulb. We pump air into the cuff to the numbers, by 30-40 mm Hg. above the pressure at which the pulsation of the artery disappears.
- Slightly loosen the valve clamp so that air begins to escape from the cuff. We carefully listen to the beginning of the pulsation of the brachial artery. At the moment of the appearance of sounds, we look at the tonometer scale and note for ourselves - systolic pressure.
- We also note the disappearance of sounds by fixing in memory the readings of the scale of the device - diastolic pressure.
This technique for measuring blood pressure is called the Korotkoff method. Named after the Russian surgeon who developed this method.
