 What comes to nursing school explain in this video on a review of central versus peripheral pulses? Why do we distinguish and why is it important? So if we look at our patient here, we have their head torso and the extremities and so just for a review here the carotid arteries are on the neck and the femoral arteries are in the femoral in the groin area and those two pulse sites are the central pulses because they're on the torso just remember central circulation meaning bigger blood vessels that are part of the torso and the two main indications that we actually check for those are when we suspect fluid volume deficits or dehydration and in CPR so remember from your BLS class That when you do a pulse check on a patient, you're always supposed to check a central pulse So that would be only the carotid or the femoral pulse and the reason being is that if you're performing CPR that means the patient has probably been down maybe who knows for how long and If the circulation is re-established if their heart starts beating again spontaneously We're not going to feel it very distally on their radial pulse We're going to feel it more in the central circulation in those bigger blood vessels And that is why if you do a pulse check during CPR and in about five seconds You don't determine that there is a pulse you continue with CPR You don't spend a lot of time checking any other pulses at any other locations or even at these central locations So central pulses carotid and femoral most they used in CPR and then also for dehydration fluid volume deficit if you really suspect the patient is very dry and Then for our peripheral pulses there are more sites to assess So we have the brachial artery that we many times use in the pediatric patient even instead of a radial pulse assessment then in adults we have or smaller children we have Radial pulse assessment as well as in the lower extremity popliteal behind the knee posterior tibialis in the lower ankle and then dorsalis pedis or the pedopulse and the peripheral Pulsis are located in the extremities only so the arms and the legs and that is when we want to make sure that there's enough Circulation to those extremities Meaning that we are checking the blood flow that the patient has so an indication would be anybody with a heart problem Where there could be a pump issue to make sure that they actually perfuse their extremities or To also make sure that if there has been an injury to an extremity that that extremity gets perfused distally to that injury site and Then the peripheral pulse is also we check frequently during neuro vascular tech So when we check our five piece of neuro vascular assessment to make sure that everything is intact And that kind of goes along with the traumatic kind of injury that the patient might have sustained So peripheral versus central pulse is very important to know This is not something that you will probably see on an exam But it is important to know mostly for that CPR questions or central pulses CPR Carotids and femoral Please give me a thumbs up if you've enjoyed the video check out my other videos about clinical tips and skills And I'll see you soon right here on nursing school explain. Thanks for watching you