Blood oozes from a venous wound, rather than spurting as it does from an arterial wound. Account for this difference.
Answers
Answer:
Artery blood runs under higher pressure (the systolic blood pressure) to push it through the capillary bed of very fine blood lines. After blood goes through the capillary bed, it is collected into the venules and veins at lower pressure (the lower number of a BP [blood pressure] number) to return to the heart.
Venous cuts can be stopped by pressure over the wound for two reasons:
The veins are collapsible by pressure over them allowing platelets to build up behind the cut and form a plug. ARTERIES ARE MADE OF 3 LAYERS AND RESIST COLLAPSE BY PRESSURE OVER THE WOUND ARTERIES ARE DEEPER AND MORE PROTECTED SO IT’S HARDER TO APPLY DIRECT PRESSURE OVER THE WOUND.
Venous blood is blood that has already distributed its nutrients and oxygen to the tissues it serves … a venous bleed is bad … but the peripheral (distal) tissues below it are alive and thriving from their artery supply.
AN ARTERIAL BLEED HASN’T DISTRIBUTED ITS OXYGEN AND NUTRIENTS TO THE DISTAL TISSUES … besides the difficulty in STOPPING an artery bleed … YOU STILL HAVEN’T FED THE PERIPHERAL TISSUES BELOW THE CUT. Depending on the total amount of tournication time needed and collateral circulation, the limb may have to be cut off instead of an artery repair by the surgeon. CUT ARTERIES (SPURTING BLEEDS) ARE ALWAYS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. With modern medical transport (including helicopters), civilians should always try direct pressure first and let the EMT / Paramedic decide if tournication is necessary. Tourniquets should be left to Navy Corpsman and Army Medics who will time the tournication relief with the ETA to a surgeon and make the appropriate call.