Blood squirt
Blood squirt (blood spurt, blood spray, blood gush, or blood jet) is the effect when an artery is ruptured. Blood pressure causes the blood to bleed out at a rapid, intermittent rate in a spray or jet, coinciding with the pulse, rather than the slower, but steady flow of venous bleeding. Also known as arterial bleeding, arterial spurting, or arterial gushing, the amount of blood loss can be copious, occur very rapidly,[1] and can lead to death by a process called exsanguination.
Anatomy
In cut
carotid arteries with 100 mL of blood through the heart at each beat (at 65 beats a minute), a completely severed artery will spurt blood for about 30 seconds and the blood will not spurt much higher than the human head. If the artery is just nicked, on the other hand, the blood will spurt longer but will be coming out under pressure and spraying much farther.[2]
To prevent
harvest.[3] This is more commonly called "Allen's test
" by microvascular surgeons, and is used before harvesting radial artery based free tissue transfers.
In 1933, a
trial prompted a testimony from Dr. Clement Harrisse Arnold about how far blood could spurt from the neck: 6 in (15 cm) vertically and 18 in (46 cm) laterally.[4]
Iconography
Saint Miliau, a Christian martyr killed c. 6th century AD, is sometimes represented holding his severed head, as in the retable of the Passion of the Christ at Lampaul-Guimiliau
, where blood gushes from his neck.
Insects and animals
Some animals deliberately
Katydids do it too, and in Germany the species has acquired the nickname "Blutspritzer", or "blood squirter". The regal horned lizard, too, uses the blood-spewing tactic, shooting the substance from a pocket near its eyes.[5]
One of the
digested
blood into a bite.
See also
- Bullet hit squib, the special effect simulating blood spilling out of a gunshot wound
- Bloodstain pattern analysis, in forensic science
- Bodily mutilation in film#Blood
- Spurt of Blood, a 1925 French surreal play
- Theatrical blood
References
- ^ "U.S. Navy Standard First Aid Manual, Chapter 3 (online)". Retrieved 3 Feb 2003.
- ^ "How writers fill in all the gory details", Humphrey Evans, The Guardian, 22 July 2004, retrieved 17 March 2010
- Papworth Hospital, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery at CTSNet, 2002
- ^ "Medicine: Blood Spurt", Time, 8 April 1935, retrieved 17 March 2010
- ^ "See It to Believe It: Animals Vomit, Spurt Blood to Thwart Predators" Archived 2017-09-14 at the Wayback Machine, Allison Bond, Discover blog, 28 July 2009, retrieved 17 March 2010