What is auscultation?

Auscultation is part of a medical test in which a doctor, nurse or other care provider listens to the sounds that take place inside the body using a stethoscope. The word "auscultation" is derived from Latin for "listen" and may take some time to learn to perform this type of exam competently. Many people are familiar with this process because it is a common part of most physical tests to provide doctors with important information about the general level of health and the physical condition of the patient. In the 18th century, the French doctor Rena Laennec developed a stethoscope and revolutionized the process of auscultation. The stethoscope allowed doctors to gain much brighter sound during this process, and modern variants included stethoscopes that record what the doctor hears, cancels excess noise and has the features to improve listening experience.

During auscultation, three different systems inside the body can be listened to: heart, lungs and intestines. Auscultation can reveal signs of bad health, včThree irregular heart rhythms, liquid in the lungs or intestinal obstacles. An attentive listener can often identify very specific conditions by sound itself and listen to the characters with narration, such as a specific type of cracking in the lungs, indicating pneumonia or whistling the characteristics of asthma.

During the test, the doctor may move a stethoscope to listen to different areas of interest, and can direct the patient to breathe deeply, hold his breath or engage in other activities so that the doctor can hear changes to the test. It is important that patients remember not to move too much during auscultation, as it can generate a background noise that makes it possible to identify things like gentle heart mumming. It is also wise to refrain from speaking because the stethoscope will enlarge the speech and may be painful for the doctor in addition to the disturbing test because the doctor will no longer be able to hear inner soundsAbove the sound of speech.

medical care providers Trainee have a number of chances of practicing their auscultation skills. They listen to each other routinely and may be asked to listen to patients with "classic" presentations of specific conditions so that they can get to know the different sounds they can hear during the tests.

IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Was this article helpful? Thanks for the feedback Thanks for the feedback

How can we help? How can we help?