Water Hammer Pulse (Corrigan Pulse): Causes, Features, and Clinical Insight

Water Hammer Pulse (Corrigan Pulse): Causes, Features, and Clinical Insight

Question. Describe Briefly the Water Hammer Pulse.

Answer. It is also called as Corrigan pulse.

• A water hammer pulse is a large bounding pulse with an increased stroke volume of the left ventricle and a decrease in the peripheral resistance, leading to wide pulse pressure.
• The pulse strikes the palpating finger with a rapid, forceful jerk and quickly disappears.
• It is best felt in the radial artery with the patient’s arm elevated.
• It is described as having a water hammer quality because of its sudden impact and collapsing quality because it falls away so rapidly.
• The collapsing pulse is caused by the artery suddenly emptying as some of the blood flows from the aorta to the ventricle.

Water Hammer Pulse (Corrigan Pulse): Causes, Features, and Clinical Insight

Water Hammer Pulse Causes

1. Physiological

• Fever
• Chronic alcoholism
• Pregnancy

2. High output states or syndrome

• Anemia
• Beri Beri
• Cor pulmonale
• Liver cirrhosis
• Paget’s disease
• Arteriovenous fistula
• Thyrotoxicosis

Corrigan Pulse (Water Hammer Pulse) Symptoms and Diagnosis

3. Cardiac lesions

• Aortic regurgitation
• Rupture of the sinus of Valsalva into the heart chamber
• Patent ductus arteriosus
• Aortopulmonary window
• Bradycardia
• Systolic hypertension

Question 7. How Will You Differentiate Arterial And Venous Pulse?

Answer.