Shock and the Capillary Refill Test
Posted on July 9th, 2010 by Roy ShawIn this RoyOnRescue Video Blog, a student had emailed Roy a question about explaining the Capillary Refill Test and how it may relate to determining if someone is suffering from shock.
Be sure to watch this episode of RoyOnRescue and learn a new trick that could either tell you if someone is going into shock, or that their hands are simply cold.
There are three main reasons why a person may have more than a 2 second capillary refill time:
1. Shock
2. Peripheral Vascular Disease
3. Hypothermia or cold hands
This slow capillary refill time of more than 2 seconds should only be an indication that we should check for other problems. Please don’t assume simply because someone has a slow cap. refill that they are going into shock. It is simply a quick and easy test to help point a first aider in the right direction and to tell us we should check for other issues.
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Tags: Capillary Refill, Capillary Refill Time, cold hands, early signs of shock, how to test for shock, hypothermia, procpr.org, ProFirstAid.com, royonrescue, royonrescue.com, shock, signs of shock, treatment for shock

