Welch Allyn Harvey DLX Stethoscope ReviewPOSTED: November 15, 2010 at 8:55 pm BY: Administrator |
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With a range of medical supplies available on the market today, stethoscopes, although considered basic, are crucial. Stethoscopes are important for listening to heart rate and recording blood pressures, and are used in basic vital signs of any and every patient. The first priority of every first responder is airway, breathing, and circulation. Stethoscopes are the keys needed when determining lifesaving assessments. The decisions for buying stethoscopes are critical since paramedics are using them in noisy environments where hearing and differentiating sounds can be difficult, and breath sounds are important no matter who is taking them or wearing maternity scrubs. An excellent choice is the Welch Allyn Harvey DLX stethoscope. Enclosed are some features to look for in a stethoscope, and where the Harvey DLX ranks in each category.
1. Tubing Design
There are two basic designs for tubing that go from the chest piece of the stethoscope to the ear pieces. The original design uses two separate tubes, which is known as a Sprague design. The two tubes offer excellent hearing, compared to a single tube. However, one significant problem is that the tubes often rub together and create more noise — or artifact — that can compromise what the paramedic is listening for. The Harvey DLX stethoscope features dual bore tubing, but the Welch Allyn brand name ensures that artifact has no presence in this superior stethoscope.
Another style uses a single tube, rather than the dual tubes. These were designed to help eliminate some of the artifact. These models vary greatly in quality — lower quality models have narrow tubing that can make it difficult for the transmission of sounds. Lower end models are often found in clinics where they are used for taking blood pressures.
Bilumen tubing incorporates the best of both worlds. It uses a single tube that has a split lumen which goes to each earpiece. Basically, it has two tubes inside a single tube. This offers improved hearing without the artifact. The bilumen models often offer better sound quality and decreased artifact.
2. Chest piece design
There are two different designs for the chest piece of a stethoscope — combination or single design.
The combination chest piece has two heads that can be rotated to select from either a diaphragm or a bell. The diaphragm is used to listen to high frequency sounds, while the bell side is used to hear lower frequencies. This is the technology used in the Harvey DLX stethoscope. It is simple to use, eliminating the margin of error.
The single head chest piece uses a unique design. To hear low frequency sounds, one rests the chest piece in place with light pressure. To hear high frequency sounds, one applies firm fingertip pressure on the chest piece. This pressure alters the frequency response by changing the contact points. There are some newly designed single head chest pieces that use a lightweight acrylic design. This is intended to increase the amplification significantly, but some complain that it is difficult to find the exact right pressure.
3. Test run
Before you purchase stethoscopes, or any medical equipment for your organization, get input from your colleagues. Have them test various models on the market to determine what they feel works best in their working environment.
If you expect your paramedics to be able to differentiate lung and heart sounds in the back of an ambulance, you need to purchase a good quality stethoscope. It is one of the essential tools needed to provide the best level of patient care. Their input is valuable and it offers them ownership in the decision process.
To sum it all up, the Welch Allyn Harvey DLX Double-head Stethoscope is the easiest-to-hear and most accurate heart sounds of any stethoscope on the market today. The stethoscope is optimized for listening to higher frequency and critically important heart sounds like murmurs, clicks, and ejection sounds. It provides clear transmission of the first and second heart sounds, and has ideally sized bell bridges that fit in the intercostal space between the ribs. The tightly constrained diaphragm provides superior response at targeted frequencies. The stethoscope also features an additional corrugated diaphragm for detecting mid-range and lower frequencies.
