Capillary refill time (CRT) has become universally used in paediatrics; it however has a number of limitations to its use as a marker of peripheral perfusion. These limitations include the effects of ambient temperature, environmental lighting conditions as well as different values being recorded at different sites of assessment; these have all been shown to have a bearing on its value. In older patients its range varies from 2 seconds to 4 seconds. All these variations have led to the removal of CRT from the trauma score. This paper reviews the influences on paediatric CRT. CRT does have a role as one of the physiological assessments of peripheral perfusion in combination with other markers such as heart rate, respiratory rate and level of consciousness.
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