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WATER HAMMER PULSE TREATMENT

WATER HAMMER PULSE

Watson's water hammer pulse, also known as Corrigan's pulse or collapsing pulse, is the medical sign (seen in aortic regurgitation) which describes a pulse that is bounding and forceful, rapidly increasing and subsequently collapsing, as if it were the sound of a water hammer that was causing the pulse. A water hammer was a Victorian toy in which a tube was half filled with fluid, the remainder being a vacuum. Each time the tube was inverted or shaken, the impact of the fluid at each end would sound like a hammer blow.

This is associated with increased stroke volume of the left ventricle and decrease in the peripheral resistance leading to the widened pulse pressure of aortic regurgitation.

CAUSES: -

Water hammer pulse is commonly found when a patient has aortic regurgitation. It can also be seen in other conditions which are associated with a hyperdynamic circulation. A more comprehensive list of causes follows:

  • Physiological
  • Fever
  • Pregnancy
  • Cardiac lesions
  • Aortic regurgitation
  • Patent ductus arteriosus
  • Systolic hypertension
  • Bradycardia
  • Aortopulmonary window
  • Aneurysm of sinus of Valsalva
  • Syndromes or high-output states
  • Anemia
  • Cor pulmonale
  • Cirrhosis of liver
  • Beriberi
  • Thyrotoxicosis
  • Arteriovenous fistula
  • Paget's disease
  • Other causes
  • Chronic alcoholism.

HOMEOPATHIC MANAGEMENT OF WATER HAMMER PULSE:-

The medicines that can be thought of use are:-

  • Adonis ver
  • Baryta carb
  • Spigelia
  • Kalmia
  • Aurum met