Why should you avoid palpating both carotid arteries at the same time?

A nurse should only palpate one carotid artery at a time because attempting to palpate both will cause severe changes in blood pressure due to the alteration of the heart rate. Because of this, the baroreceptor reflex will become active. This reflex is especially sensitive to high blood pressure in the carotid artery and something as simple as palpation can activate it.

It drops the heart rate quickly which can cause the patient to lose consciousness. Palpating only one carotid artery at a time also prevents undue pressure on the circulatory system and allows the heart rate to return to a normal rate without negative outcomes.

It is of the utmost of importance that a nurse only massage and attempt to papaltate one cartorid artery at a time. What this does is puts less stress on the entire circulatory system. If both of the arties are attempted to be papaltated at the same time it will cause a weaker than normal heart rate which is medically known as a bradycardia.

Doing it just one at a time will allow for the circulatory system to be able to slowly but surely get back in rythym and catch up with itself. In the most extreme cases when it comes to a bradycardia there could be a cardiac arrest which in turn means that there could be a fatal outcome. Keeping the circulatory system at its best functioning status is the key and that means that proper papaltation of the cartorid arteries must always be performed to ensure that no fatal problems and outcomes could occur.

Palpating both arteries at one time may cause severe bradycardia.-rationale: the nurse must palpate the carotid arteries one at a time to prevent severe bradycardia and impairment of cerebral circulation. the nurse must also remember to avoid massaging the carotid sinus, located at the bifurcation of the carotid arteries; the resulting bradycardia could lead to cardiac arrest.client needs category: physiological integrityclient needs subcategory: basic care and comfortcognitive level: applicationreference: weber, j., and kelley, j. health assessment in nursing, 3rd ed. philadelphia: lippincott williams & wilkins, 2007, p. 370.