Atherosclerosis: Collateral Circulation (Nursing)

00:00 Now this is something amazing that your body can do.

00:04 Take a look at that picture.

00:05 In the first one on the left, you see how we've got pretty clear blood flow, but then look what's happening well you already know that process and detail, right, we've had a damage, then we had responders, they infiltrated the wall, it got trapped in there then it turned into that really tough and fibrous plaque.

00:22 But that means those arteries that's really narrowed in that area look you've got a buildup on both sides.

00:29 So what the body can do, if it happens slowly enough, the body has a plan and you call it collateral circulation So look at the first drawing, everything's clear, no problem.

00:42 Look at the second drawing, ooh we have that build up on both sides but look at the difference in the vessels that are outside of that main one.

00:50 Look at the difference between the first picture and the second picture.

00:54 Looks they're longer, they're reaching for each other kinda like a plant does towards sunshine.

01:00 That's what collateral circulation will do.

01:02 So by the time we get to see, if all the time it works out just right, you see that we've got a blockage but it's not a problem because we have the collateral circulation that's now reestablished blood flow around the blockage.

01:17 See what happens in a hurry, a surgeon can go in and actually do a coronary artery bypass and that's what they would do is they would take a piece of vessel from somewhere else and they will connect it before the blockage and after the blockage.

01:31 But if you give your body enough time, it does it itself.

01:36 I mean I know you're in nursing school and there's a lot of stress but sometimes you just have to sit back and think about, that is so cool that your body can respond to that.

01:46 So it can create its own collateral circulation, no surgery required but what is required is time.

01:54 A period of time, we need slow- building plaque, this doesn't just happen if I automatically have a clot block off and I have complete blockage - this is not going to be enough or quick enough to respond but collateral circulation needs time and the body can come up with on its own backup plan.