7/13/2023 0 Comments Sphygmomanometer korotkoff sounds![]() ![]() However, in other European countries, including the UK and Ireland, the move to ban mercury from hospital use has not been received with enthusiasm on the grounds that there is no accurate alternative device to the mercury sphygmomanometer. The mercury thermometer has been replaced in many countries, and in Sweden and the Netherlands the use of mercury is no longer permitted in hospitals. What happens, they ask, to the many tons of mercury supplied for the manufacture of sphygmomanometers and then distributed throughout the world to hospitals and countless individual doctors? Quite simply it finds its way back into the environment through evaporation, sewage, or in solid waste, most seriously damaging the marine environment, and it accumulates in soil and in sediments thereby entering the food chain. The call to have mercury removed from hospitals comes from the environmental lobby, which, quite correctly, sees mercury as a toxic, persistent, and bioaccumable substance. However, the greatest concern about mercury is its toxic effects on the environment. Users should be alert therefore to the hazards associated with handling mercury. The mercury sphygmomanometer is a simple and accurate device, which can be easily serviced, but there are rightly concerns about the toxicity of mercury for individuals using mercury sphygmomanometers, and for those who have to service them. ![]() The CD is accompanied by the British Hypertension Society booklet Blood pressure measurement: recommendations of the British Hypertension Society. The CD Rom produced by the Working Party on Blood Pressure Measurement of the British Hypertension Society in 1998 5 incorporates instruction, with examples of blood pressure measurement using a falling mercury column with Korotkoff sounds and a means for the student to assess competence in the technique using a series of examples. 4 Ironically, these methods of achieving much needed improvement in performing the auscultatory technique have arrived as the mercury sphygmomanometer is under threat and as automated devices move in to replace the observer these have included: direct instruction using a binaural stethoscope the use of manuals, booklets, and published recommendations audiotape training methods videofilm methods, and, most recently, CD Rom methods. Instruction to medical students and nurses has not always been as comprehensive as it might be, and assessment for competence in measuring blood pressure has been a relatively recent development. The technique of auscultatory blood pressure measurement is a complicated one that is often taken for granted. ![]()
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