Word.ws English Dictionary

Valsalva manoeuvre

Valsalva manoeuvre noun: a self-administered procedure comprising an attempted exhalation against a closed airway, usually performed by closing one's mouth and pinching one's nose shut while attempting, with moderate force, to expel air.

valsalva manoeuvre: a self-administered procedure comprising an attempted exhalation against a closed airway, usually...
Image: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kate Thornton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Valsalva manoeuvre (plural Valsalva manoeuvres)

  1. A self-administered procedure comprising an attempted exhalation against a closed airway, usually performed by closing one's mouth and pinching one's nose shut while attempting, with moderate force, to expel air.
    • Variations of the Valsalva manoeuvre can be used during medical examination.
    • We observed forearm vasodilatation following the Valsalva manoeuvre in 11 out of 19 normal subjects; the remainder showed a persistent forearm vasoconstriction (Bennett et al. 1979b).1983, Roger Bannister, Autonomic Failure, Oxford University Press, page 426

Examples of Valsalva manoeuvre in a sentence

  • When that time comes, a person may perform the Valsalva manoeuvre, increasing the pressure inside the abdomen by exhaling against a closed airway as if popping one’s ears on a flight.2018, Alex Blasdel, “Bowel movement: the push to change the way you poo”, in The Guardian:
  • The Valsalva manoeuvre is performed by forced expiration against a closed glottis.2019, David Chambers, Christopher Huang, Gareth Matthews, Basic Physiology for Anaesthetists, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page...

Synonyms of Valsalva manoeuvre

Forms of Valsalva manoeuvre

pluralValsalva manoeuvres
alternative formValsalva maneuver

Origin of Valsalva manoeuvre

Named after Italian anatomist Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666–1723), whose research focused on the ears.

Questions about Valsalva manoeuvre

What does Valsalva manoeuvre mean?
Valsalva manoeuvre means a self-administered procedure comprising an attempted exhalation against a closed airway, usually performed by closing one's mouth and pinching one's nose shut while attempting, with moderate force, to expel air.
How do you use Valsalva manoeuvre in a sentence?
When that time comes, a person may perform the Valsalva manoeuvre, increasing the pressure inside the abdomen by exhaling against a closed airway as if popping one’s ears on a flight.
What part of speech is Valsalva manoeuvre?
Valsalva manoeuvre is a noun.
What is the plural of Valsalva manoeuvre?
The plural of Valsalva manoeuvre is Valsalva manoeuvres.

Words near Valsalva manoeuvre in the dictionary

  1. Valsalva
  2. Valsalva device
  3. Valsalva devices
  4. Valsalva maneuver
  5. Valsalva maneuvers
  6. Valsalva manoeuvre
  7. Valsalva manoeuvres
  8. Valsalvan
  9. Valsalvas
  10. Valsalvian
  11. Valsalvian experiment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Valsalva manoeuvre (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Valsalva manoeuvre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/valsalva_manoeuvre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.