arterial and venous occlusions?

Question

I'm a first semester nursing student in pathophysiology. We have a test next week and one of the objectives is...What are the differences in arterial and venous occlusion and what are the signs and symptoms of both. There is nothing in my book glossary on this subject and I can't seem to find general information on the web. Everything is related to a specific artery or organ. Can anyone help me? Thanks jody

Answer 1

Well, there are many differences, but I would think that the primary difference is in hemodynamics within the capillary bed supplied/drained by those vessels. That is, occlusion of an artery produces an ischemic capillary bed because of hypoperfusion, which would be noticed as cyanosis and hypothermia in the periphery.

In contrast, venous occlusion produces congestion because of insufficient vascular drainage, which results in edema and fluid overflow in the capillary bed due to increased hydrostatic pressure. Edema tends to be warm and very swollen, which poses a much different picture than the cold, dehydrated appearance of a cyanotic/hypothermic structure.

One other difference that immediately comes to mind is systolic pressure, since arterial occlusion could potentially reduce blood pressure measurements, depending on where you measure it, while venous occlusion would not really produce such a change, because of its blockade being distal to the site of measurement.