Background Atelectasis and poorly ventilated lung areas are negative consequences of general anesthesia observed in adult as well as in children. The reported incidence of this anesthesia-induced atelectasis in children is high and comes from 83 % to almost 100 %. The diagnosis of this entity is difficult to do at the bedside; they are commonly small and mostly invisible to standard chest X-ray...

BACKGROUND The aim of our study was to evaluate the pulmonary effects of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) with or without recruitment maneuver (RM) after open heart surgery. METHODS One-hundred patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery were randomized into four groups after the operation: 1) RM with sustained inflation during mechanical ventilation postoperatively (RM group, n = 25); 2)...

BACKGROUND Following preoxygenation and induction of anaesthesia, most patients develop atelectasis. We hypothesized that an immediate restoration to a low oxygen level in the alveoli would prevent atelectasis formation and improve oxygenation during the ensuing anaesthesia. METHODS We randomly assigned 24 patients to either a control group (n = 12) or an intervention group (n = 12) receiving...

Intermittent positive-pressure breathing is thought to avoid atelectasis and improve pulmonary function after major lung resections. Since no clear scientific data was available to confirm this, our objective was to determine whether atelectasis can be avoided and if postoperative lung function is improved. Prospective analysis was carried out in 135 patients operated on between 2007 and 2009; ...

We report a case of pulmonary sarcoidosis, which initially presented as a left apical infiltrate. The later course mimicked a pulmonary neoplasm, with left upper lobe atelectasis secondary to bronchial stenosis, resulting from both endobronchial sarcoidosis and extrinsic compression by enlarged lymph nodes. Extrinsic pressure from sarcoid nodes on the left main pulmonary artery and recurrent la...

We present a patients with persistent position-dependent productive cough and intermittent fever. He was first examined at 38 yrs of age. Chest X-ray showed a severe thoracic lordoscoliosis and an atelectasis of the right lower lobe. Bronchography revealed a total stenosis of the right lower lobe bronchus. Five years later had increased symptoms. Spirometry showed total lung capacity (TLC) 3.8 ...

The aim of this study was to investigate by computed tomography (CT) whether asbestosis, diffuse pleural thickening and/or pleural plaques are statistically associated. We also tried to find criteria to differentiate between diffuse and circumscribed pleural thickening. From 231 exposed workers, only those subjects whose radiograph showed neither bilateral calcified pleural plaques nor small pu...

It has been well established that pulmonary function decreases following open heart surgery (Taggart et al 1993, van Belle et al 1992, Vargas et al 1992). General anaesthesia has been shown to reduce functional residual capacity (FRC) by approximately 20%, cardiopulmonary bypass impairs gas exchange, and cardiac surgery patients with mammary arteries harvested have been shown to have a higher r...