What the heck are they?

Pulse, parathesis, duh....?

We were taught 5 P's

Pulselessness, parasthesia, paralysis, pallor, and pain

*also capillary refill

Add poikilothermia, or cool extremities.....

Stephen

SteveRN21 said:

Add poikilothermia, or cool extremities.....

Stephen

As much fun as poikilothermia is to say, you can also remember this one as "Polar" for cool.

When monitoring for early signs of acute compartment syndrome assess for the "Six P's" including Pain, Pressure, Paralysis, Paresthesia, Pallor, and Pulselessness as found in Medical-Surgical Nusring Pateint-Centered Collaborative Care (6th ed), p. 1181.

pinkrose4U said:

It's been quite awhile since these messages were posted, but here is an update. "When monitoring for early signs of acute compartment syndrome assess for the "Six P's" including pain, pressure, paralysis, paresthesia, pallor, and pulselessness" (Harvey, 2006) as found in Ignativicius & Workman (2010), Medical-Surgical Nusring Pateint-Centered Collaborative Care (6th ed), p. 1181.

The pressure is kind of specific to compartment syndrome related to the swelling and almost explosion within the leg of pressure. But with a normal neuromuscular assessment(which I think the OP was talking about those YEARS ago lol), poikilothermia would be the 6th. And the extremity isn't necessarily cool. The temperature actually varies based on the temperature of what it's touching or the air around it. Warm surface or 77 degree air...you get a warm foot or 77 degree foot. 65 degree air and you get a 65 degree foot. Put a cold cloth on it, the foot gets cold, pretty weird deal.