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