Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Intermediate Practice Exam

A patient with weak femoral pulses after a car accident may have:

1. Cardiac arrest

2. Hemorrhagic shock

3. Traumatic aortic disruption

4. Pulmonary contusion

The correct answer is: Traumatic aortic disruption

The presence of weak femoral pulses in a patient after a car accident is highly indicative of a serious vascular injury, possibly involving the aorta. Traumatic aortic disruption is a condition where the aorta, the major artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body, is injured due to significant blunt force trauma, such as that from a car accident. This injury can lead to compromised blood flow, especially to the lower extremities, resulting in weak or absent femoral pulses as the blood supply is reduced. In traumatic aortic disruption, patients may initially present with signs of shock due to the massive internal bleeding that can occur if the aorta is torn. The weak femoral pulses reflect the reduced blood flow to the lower body, a direct consequence of the disrupted vascular integrity. Other answers do not specifically align with weak femoral pulses in this context. Cardiac arrest could lead to absent pulses in general but wouldn’t specifically affect just the femoral pulses. Hemorrhagic shock could result in weak pulses, but this condition is more generalized and not specifically indicative of an arterial injury. A pulmonary contusion primarily affects the lung tissue and would not directly impact the perfusion of the femoral arteries. Therefore, the most