Abstract
Stevin’s law and Pascal’s principle are two laws of the so-called statics of fluids. Stevin’s law states that the pressure at any point within a fluid at rest (of a certain density) depends only on the depth of that point: undersea, pressure increases according to this law. Pascal’s principle states that the variation in the pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted unchanged to each portion of the fluid and to the walls of its container: the Heimlich maneuver and hydraulic car lifts rely on it. There are many applications (and implications) of Stevin’s law and Pascal’s principle in the clinical practice of anesthesia: verify the inflation of a tracheal tube cuff, external cardiac massage, invasive pressure monitoring, zeroing and leveling of pressure transducers, measuring pulmonary artery occlusion pressure, and phleboclysis have all something to do with one or both of these laws.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Srivastava A, Sood A, Joy PS, Mandal S, Panwar R, Ravichandran S, Sarangi S, Woodcock J. Principles of physics in surgery: the laws of mechanics and vectors physics for surgeons-part 2. Indian J Surg. 2010;72:355–61.
Hwang JY, Han SH, Park SH, Park SJ, Park S, SH O, Kim JH. Interrupting gel layer between Double cuffs prevents fluid leakage past tracheal tube cuffs. Br J Anaesth. 2013;111:496–504.
Heffner JE, Hess D. Tracheostomy management in the chronically ventilated patient. Clin Chest Med. 2001;22(1):55–69.
Goyal R, Kumar G, Waghray MR. Endotracheal tube cuff pressure monitoring in peripheral hospitals. Med J Armed Forces India. 2006;62(3):243–5.
Liu J, Zhang X, Gong W, Li S, Wang F, Fu S, Zhang M, Hang Y. Correlations between controlled endotracheal tube cuff pressure and postprocedural complications: a multicenter study. Anesth Analg. 2010;111(5):1133–7.
Michlig SA. Anaesthetic staff cannot identify extremely high tracheal tube cuff pressures by palpation of the pilot balloon. Br J Anaesth. 2013;111(2):300–1.
Pisano A. Pitfalls from physics: why we can’t “feel” the tube cuff pressure with our fingers. Anesth Analg. 2017;124(4):1368.
Magder S. Invasive intravascular hemodynamic monitoring: technical issues. Crit Care Clin. 2007;23:401–14.
Szocik JF, Barker SJ, Tremper KK. Fundamental principles of monitoring instrumentation. In: Miller RD, editor. Miller’s anesthesia. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone; 2005. p. 1191–225.
Aston D, Rivers A, Dharmadasa A. Equipment in anaesthesia and critical care. Banbury: Scion Publishing Limited; 2014. p. 375.
Mark JB, Slaughter TF. Cardiovascular monitoring. In: Miller RD, editor. Miller’s anesthesia. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone; 2005. p. 1265–362.
Pittman JA, Ping JS, Mark JB. Arterial and central venous pressure monitoring. Int Anesthesiol Clin. 2004;42(1):13–30.
Magder S. Central venous pressure monitoring. Curr Opin Crit Care. 2006;12:219–27.
Magder S. Central venous pressure: a useful but not so simple measurement. Crit Care Med. 2006;34:2224–7.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pisano, A. (2017). Toothpaste, Sea Deeps, and Invasive Pressure Monitoring: Stevin’s Law and Pascal’s Principle. In: Physics for Anesthesiologists. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57330-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57330-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57329-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57330-4
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)