Anaesthetic aspects of bronchial fistula.

SINCE the term bronchial fistula can, from the practical point of view, be applied to any abnormal connection between the inside of the intrathoracic respiratory system and the outside, it includes a very wide assortment of cases. Fistulae vary in their acuteness and duration from a few minutes up to thirty years or more (Huizinga and Smelt, 1950), and in their consequences from the rapidly fatal to the almost insignificant. Although the anaesthetic management of these cases falls mainly within the province of those working in specialized units, any anaesthetist may be caught unawares from time to time. Quite apart from this consideration the subject is well worth discussing because of its intrinsic interest and because it has probably called for as much anaesthetic ingenuity and resourcefulness as any other subject within the specialty.