Dissecting Aortic Aneurysm

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Hi,

Why is it that in a patient with a suspected dissected aortic aneurysm, blood pressure should be checked in both arms.

Thankyou.

Specializes in Operating Room Nurse.
The post is referring to an aortic dissection not an aneurysm, different ball game.

Dissecting Aortic Aneurysm :cool:

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Lost my other link for you. Anyways, here is one link:

http://www.iradonline.org/treatment.html

We are a specialty center for management, treatment & repair of both dissections & aneurysms, see these all the time. You have a difference in blood pressure due to the tear & where circulation is compromised. (Basically a dissection will lead to 2 lumens in the aorta instead of one. The false lumen, where the clot is located can not give adequate perfusion to the affected areas of the body. You also have a catecholamine release with a tear which will affect pressures.)

If you want to research further, do a lit search in AJN, they had an article on dissections from a couple of years ago (has a great cross-section picture of the aorta which will give you a great visual of what's going on). Circulations, journal of AHA, also had an excellent article. My computer is down (where I have the articles saved) otherwise I'd give you the specific citations. (on my iPad now) I use both of those articles when teaching nurses about dissections. Hope it helps

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Apologies. Top of my screen was cut off so I didn't see title, only one post

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Specializes in Operating Room Nurse.
Apologies. Top of my screen was cut off so I didn't see title, only one post

No problem highlandlass1592. We are just human. :)

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