Explain why a severed artery spurts blood, whereas a severed vein merely leaks blood.

Video transcript

Hey, everyone. Let's take a look at this question together. Which of the following is correct regarding a damaged blood vessel. Is it answer choice. A, a damaged vein would spurt out blood forcefully. Answer choice. B A severed artery would ooze out blood. Answer choice. C A damaged artery is more difficult to stabilize or answer choice. D all of the above. Let's work this problem out together to try to figure out which of the following answer choices contains a statement about a damaged blood vessel that is correct. So in order to solve this question, we have to recall what we have learned about different blood vessels and what would occur if the blood vessel became damaged. Starting off with answer choice A which says a damaged vein would spurt out blood forcefully. Well, we know that venous blood flows to the heart and is under less force than arterial blood. And since it is under less force than arterial blood, the blood will ooze out steadily and not spurt out blood forcefully. So answer choice A is incorrect. Next, we have answer choice B which says A severed artery would ooze out blood and we can recall that arterial blood flows from the heart is oxygenated and is bright red. And arterial blood shoots out with each heartbeat in a rhythmic pattern, which means that a severed artery would not ooze out blood and would shoot out blood with each heartbeat. So answer choice B is also an incorrect statement. And since answer choices, A and B are both incorrect answer choice D, all of the above cannot be the answer either making answer choice C the correct answer. Since answer choice C says a damaged artery, it is more difficult to stabilize, which is a correct statement regarding a damaged blood vessel as the force of each heartbeat interrupts the blood clotting process which can lead to a lot of blood loss, making a damaged artery more difficult to stabilize. So answer choice C is the only correct answer choice. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye.