Respiratory failure in chest wall injuries.

Treatment of respiratory failure following chest injuries.

Progressive generalized scleroderma: respiratory failure from primary chest wall involvement.

A 73-year-old woman presented with an eight-month history of swelling of the right leg. The calf and ankle were found normal, but there was non-pitting swelling of the thigh of "woody" consistency. Both flanks were firm with cutaneous thickening. There were no other abnormal physical findings. A cutaneous biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of scleroderma. The chest radiograph was normal and initial...

[Respiratory muscle disorders in chest wall diseases].

Sigmoidal equation for lung and chest wall volume-pressure curves in acute respiratory failure.

To assess incidence and magnitude of the "lower inflection point" of the chest wall, the sigmoidal equation was used in 36 consecutive patients intubated and mechanically ventilated with acute lung injury (ALI). They were 21 primary and 5 secondary ALI, 6 unilateral pneumonia, and 4 cardiogenic pulmonary edema. The lower inflection point was estimated as the point of maximal compliance increase...

Pulmonary, chest wall, and lung-thorax elastances in acute respiratory failure.

The usefulness of lung-thorax compliance (or elastance) as an index of pulmonary compliance (or elastance) was examined in 15 patients being ventilated for acute respiratory failure. Mean lung-thorax elastance (ELT) was 27.9 +/- 2.6 cm H2O/L, and the chest wall accounted for 34 +/- 2 percent of the mean total value. Changes in ELT caused by increments of positive end-expiratory pressure correla...