Implications of anesthesia for the asthmatic patient.

Asthma runs the spectrum from being a nuisance to being a terrifying experience which, if it continues unabated to status asthmaticus, can lead to death. The disease, many times, is a difficult puzzle for the medical practitioner to solve. If an asthmatic patient must undergo anesthesia, another spectrum of attitudes may be manifested by those of us who deliver the anesthesia care. They may range from a "blase cavalierism" based on an abject ignorance of the disease to "controlled panic" based on past experience with asthmatics. The intent of this article is to provide a bit of illumination on asthma. Also included are a few hints on how to anesthetize the asthmatic patient, whether he or she is presently asymptomatic or in the midst of a status asthmaticus siege.