Vital signs

Vital signs (from the Latin vitalis "belonging to life") are perceptible and testable or measurable vital functions of a person that provide information about vital body functions ( vital functions ).

The term can be used both in human medicine and (with the necessary adaptations) in veterinary medicine .

Nursing and elderly care

Observing and measuring vital signs is an everyday nursing activity . On the one hand, it serves to diagnose and control therapies, and on the other hand, the parameters provide an overview of the patient's state of health. The measured values ​​determined are called vital signs .

Vital signs also play a role in emergency medicine, for example when deciding on treatment priorities according to the Emergency Severity Index .

The first order vital signs or functions are calculated as follows:

• Pulse
• Blood pressure
• Body temperature
• Awareness ( vigilance ) and
• Respiratory rate .

Second-order vital signs such as oxygen saturation , blood sugar , fluid balance , the condition of the skin and the reaction of the pupil to light stimuli are also important for patient safety . In practice, a number of other vital signs can be observed , v. a. in intensive care patients and for postoperative monitoring .

The pulse is checked by means of buttons. Missing pulses mean cardiac arrest .

The state of consciousness is checked by speaking, touching and adding a pain stimulus (for example on the back of the hand). Depending on whether the subsequent reaction is adequate or not, one speaks of clarity or clouding of consciousness or, if there is no response at all, of a lack of consciousness. The term unconsciousness, on the other hand, means a lack of awareness with existing breathing and circulation.

The breathing is checked by observing the breathing movements of the chest as well as hearing and feeling the breath. From normofrequency breathing, through difficult breathing, hyperventilation , gasping for breathing to a lack of breathing, there are a whole range of possibilities. In contrast to the “lack of breathing”, the term “ respiratory arrest ” describes the state of a lack of consciousness when breathing is absent but the circulation is preserved.

Forensic medicine

In forensic medicine , the expression vitality sign (also called vital reaction ) describes such injuries that cannot have occurred post mortem , but occurred while still alive. Examples of this are bleeding , embolism or deep aspiration and inhalation of liquids or gases. Fine-bubble foam occurs in the respiratory tract only in someone who has drowned, but not in someone who has already got into the water dead.

Changes to the human body are documented and assessed during the post- mortem examination and forensic medical examination . Signs of vitality are indications that a person was still alive at the time of a harmful effect. Supravital reactions are an expression of the body functions in a corpse, e.g. B. obtained pupillary reactions are detectable up to 17 hours after death. They provide information on how to narrow down the time of death .

literature

• Charlotte Isler: Key to Health Assessment: The Vital Signs . The nurse's helper 1978, pp. 60–70.
• Sandra Herrgesell, Christian Kania, Andrea Runde: Vital signs and nursing intervention. Prodos Verlag, 2nd, revised edition 2012. ISBN 3-34750-04-4.
• Burkhard Madea: Forensic Medicine. Assessment, reconstruction, assessment. Springer-Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg 2015. ISBN 978-3-662-43499-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vital signs Pschyrembel Online, accessed on August 27, 2020.
2. ↑ cf. Silvia Kaczmarek, Uwe Kaczmarek: Vital values. Emergency checklist: vital signs in dogs. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
3. ↑ Verbund HF Pflege (Ed.): Vital signs . hep verlag , 3rd edition 2015, p. 4.
4. ↑ Recording the physical parameters and the vital signs Institute for Intercultural Communication , accessed on August 27, 2020.
5. ↑ Klaus Richter, Richard Strauss: The neglected vital sign The sister, Der Pfleger 2015, p. 26 f.
6. ↑ Vital sign control medicine compact, accessed on August 27, 2020.
7. ↑ Vital signs: Much more than just blood pressure and pulse measurements BibliomedPflege, September 1, 2016.
8. ↑ Vitality signs DokCheck, March 13, 2014.
9. ↑ Thanatology. Amboss GmbH, accessed on August 27, 2020.

This article is about a health issue. It is not used for self-diagnosis and does not replace a diagnosis by a doctor. Please note the information on health issues !