Percussion (medicine)

Of the percussion is understood in the medical performed for diagnostic purposes tapping the body surface. It is part of the physical examination. The verb is, percuss, the adjective by percussion or perkussorisch.

In this case, the tissue lying under the body surface is set in vibrations. The resulting sound qualities give information about the state of the tissue. So (such as the liver ), or the air content of the tissue ( lung), the size and position of an organ can be estimated. As the founder of this technique is Joseph Leopold von Auenbrugger (1722-1809) from Graz, who described it for the first time in 1761.

In the technique originally described by Leopold von Auenbrugger applied it was the direct percussion, in which one directly taps with the four fingers of one hand from the vibrating wrist hand on the organ to be examined.

Later indirect percussion has been developed in which a finger of one hand (called the Plessimeterfinger ) or pleximeter is flattened on the surface of the body to be examined. With one finger of the other hand or with a Perkussionshämmerchen is then knocked on that finger. The sound vibrations transmitted from the resting Plessimeterfinger to the underlying tissue, which is set in natural oscillations. Diagnostic indications obtained from the sound quality.

The most commonly used method is the finger -finger method, in which no tools are required: one puts a finger on the body surface, tapping a finger of the other hand on it.

Sound qualities

• Sonorous percussion: percussion in the healthy lung audible hollow sound
• Hyper sonorous percussion sound ( loud and sonorous as a hollow knocking sound, so-called shaft Elton ): indication of excessive air content, for example, pulmonary emphysema, asthma, pneumothorax, etc.
• Muffled knocking sound (quieter and shorter tone, similar to the on percussion of the femur (thigh sound ) ): indication of reduced air content, and fluid accumulation, such as ascites, pleural effusion, pneumonia, etc.
• Tympanitic percussion sound ( hollow, almost musical cramming like sound ): indication of cavities, such as cavern gas-filled loop of bowel, stomach bubble