NURSING 277 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Respiratory Sounds, Heart Sounds, Stethoscope
Document Summary
Tapping the person"s skin with short, sharp, strokes to assess underlying structures. Produces audible vibration that helps reveal: location, density, and size of underlying tissue. Direct percussion or immediate , the striking hand directly contacts the body wall (ex. sinus tenderness) Indirect percussion or mediate , using both hands, the striking hand contacts stationary hand fixed on person"s skin (ex. lung percussion: *percussion note characteristics: Resonant low-pitched (hollow) - ex. air-filled lungs, normal lung tissue. Hyper-resonant loud/booming - normal over a child"s lung, abnormal in adult hyper-inflated lung with increased amount of air as in emphysema (someone with. Copd that has huge lungs would be considered hyperresonant sound) Tympany high pitched/drum-like - ex. stomach (air-filled stomach) Dull soft- high-pitched, thud-like - ex. dense organs (heart, liver, spleen) Flat a dead stop of sound, absolute dullness. When no air is present ex. over thigh muscles, bone, or tumor.
