Department: Topics in Progressive Care Marjaana Mehta is an adult nurse practitioner in adult medical oncology at Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center. Assessing your patient's abdomen can provide critical information about his internal organs. Always follow this sequence:
inspection, auscultation, percussion, and palpation. Changing the order of these assessment techniques could alter the frequency of bowel sounds and make your findings less accurate. Have your patient empty his bladder, then lie supine with a pillow under his head. Expose his abdomen from above the xiphoid process to the symphysis pubis.
SELECTED REFERENCESBickley L. Bates Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking, 10th ed. Philadelphia, Pa., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009. Jarvis C. Physical Examination and Health Assessment, 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa., W.B. Saunders Co., 2007. Where is tympany heard in the abdomen?Tympany is typically heard over air-filled structures such as the small intestine and the large intestine. Dullness is typically heard over fluid or solid organs such as the liver or spleen, which can be used to determine the margins of the liver and spleen.
What is tympany in ascites?Flank Dullness
Note: The tympany over the umbilicus occurs in ascites because bowel floats to the top of the abdominal fluid at the level of the fluid meniscus.
When percussing Where does the nurse normally expect to hear dullness tympany and resonance?Normally, one expects to hear dull sound on percussion of the right anterior chest over the liver, and tympanic sound on percussion of left anterior chest over the gastric air bubble and the splenic flexure of the colon (Figure 1).
Which body organ would the examiner expect to hear tympany?Tympanic sounds are hollow, high, drumlike sounds. Tympany is normally heard over the stomach, but is not a normal chest sound. Tympanic sounds heard over the chest indicate excessive air in the chest, such as may occur with pneumothorax.
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