Surgical Pneumothorax Research Articles

Pneumothorax après mise en place d'une dérivation ventriculo-péritonéale

A respiratory distress syndrome is reported in a four month old girl, after placement of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt for hydrocephalus. This complication was related to a surgical pneumothorax. It was an early and spontaneously resolving complication, which one should have in mind after shunting procedures.

Factors which affect ventilatory function during surgical pneumothorax.

During surgical pneumothorax operations, measurements were made of the oxygen saturation, pH, and pCO 2 of the arterial blood in 32 patients, and the circulatory effect of collapse of the operated lung was observed by determining these 3 quantities. The values obtained indicated that, in patients with minimal or moderate unilateral disease, the total collapse of the operated lung was followed by diversion of the blood flow to the unoperated side. In patients with extensive disease of the operated lung, the absence of change in the 3 variables indicated a preexisting diversion of the blood from the diseased lung. In patients with severe bilateral disease, the data indicated a minimal diversion of the blood.

Effects of surgical pneumothorax on pulmonary ventilation.

Effects of surgical pneumothorax on pulmonary ventilation.

Surgical Emphysema, Pneumothorax and Pneumoperitoneum

Surgical emphysema, pneumothorax, and pneumoperitoneum occurred, in this case, in the course of a closed ether anesthesia administered for the removal of a foreign body within the esophagus. Roentgenographic studies revealednot only the extent of the distribution of the ether vapor within the body, but gave some hint as to the anatomic pathways followed by the gas in its permeation through the various tissues. Case Report G. S., a boy four years of age, was admitted to the Mount Sinai Hospital on July 1, 1937, with a history of having swallowed a five-cent piece 36 hours previously. He complained of considerable pharyngeal discomfort and a fluoroscopic examination made in a private laboratory, two hours before admission to the hospital, revealed the coin to be within the esophagus about two inches below the hypopharynx. It was felt advisable to remove it immediately by esophagoscopy. Ether anesthesia was administered through nasal catheters, the tipsof which extended into the nasopharynx. There was some d...

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CARDIORESPIRATORY PHYSIOLOGY FOLLOWING THE COLLAPSE OF ONE LUNG BY BRONCHIAL LIGATION

Surgical pneumothorax exerts its deleterious effects largely through disturbances which it produces in the normal pressure relations within the thorax. On the same side as the opening in the chest wall, the normal negative pressure becomes obliterated, the lung becomes markedly collapsed and the alteration of the pressure relations is transmitted to the opposite side to a degree depending on the condition of the mediastinum. Thus, widespread disturbances are produced in the cardiorespiratory physiology which may be divided, according to their genesis, into four groups: 1. Those produced by the collapse of the lung on the side which is open. 2. Those due to the effects of the changed pressure relations on the lung of the opposite side. 3. Those due to the mechanical interference with efficient inspiration and expiration of the opening in the chest wall. 4. Those due to the changed pressure relations about the heart and great

BELGIUM

<h3>Dyspnea and Pneumothorax</h3> At a recent meeting of the Academy of Medicine, Dautrebande and Spehl presented an important study on the causes of dyspnea and of death in open pneumothorax. They conclude that surgical pneumothorax induces dyspnea owing to anoxemia, and that this condition, characterized mainly by a superficial and rapid respiration that soon becomes dangerous, can be combated by the administration of oxygen. <h3>Spermatic or Seminal Cysts</h3> Before the Belgian Urologic Society, Dr. Cantinaux presented recently the results of his researches on the origin of bilateral spermatic cysts, and discussed their relationship with syphilis. <h3>Drainage in Empyema</h3> Speaking before the Belgian Surgical Society, Willems stated that he had tried several times reversible drainage, but that he had obtained only mediocre results; for generalized purulent pleurisies, at least, he regards it as insufficient. In the case of patients confined to the bed, he performs a posterior thoracotomy (Walther method) in

INTRALARYNGEAL INSUFFLATION.

In man, as in the lower animals, the sudden admission of air in the normal pleura, whether this occurs accidentally or as the result of deliberate purpose in the course of operative interventions in the thorax, is a condition always fraught with much danger to the patient and anxiety to the operator. It is not a small, accidental puncture or aperture communicating with the pleural cavity, permitting the gradual entrance of air and the production of a partial pneumothorax, that is feared, but it is the large openings which allow the rapid and free entrance of air, and that are followed almost invariably by collapse of the lungs, cyanosis and evidences of defective oxygenation and arrested respiration, that have led the surgeons of all times to dread the production of traumatism or surgical pneumothorax as one of the greatest evils in intrathoracic surgery. The evidence on this subject is so