Transmitted Voice Sounds


If you hear adventitious sounds on auscultation, assess how these sounds change as the patient speaks. Voice assessment can provide important clues about respiratory abnormalities. Normal lungs are filled with air, and air does not transmit sound readily. Normally, transmitted voice sounds are difficult to hear – spoken words are muffled and indistinct and whispered words are usually not heard at all.

However, when substances such as fluid or solid masses replace air in the lungs, sounds are transmitted more clearly. The sounds that can be assessed are:


© RnCeus.com