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First Practical Means of Respiratory Support

Philip A. Drinker, PhD; Charles F. McKhann III, MD

JAMA. 1986;255(11):1476-1480.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

IT IS almost hard to recall now the enormous concern inspired by polio only a few decades ago. The most feared outcome of this disease was paralysis of the respiratory muscles that rapidly led to death from anoxia. Polio in the 1920s affected mostly children. It was geographically a very spotty disease, confined to a few blocks and then skipping large areas only to show up in clusters in other parts of town. Epidemics occurred every two or three years, and the percentage of "bulbar" polio varied from one epidemic to another but usually was low.

True bulbar polio affected the brain stem and primarily the ability to swallow. These patients usually drowned in their own secretions but often could breathe well. However, patients who had "anterior" polio involving the cervical and thoracic spinal cord were unable to breathe at all. For the disease to be really serious, the spinal . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston (Dr Drinker); and the Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn (Dr McKhann).

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Biomedical Engineering, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115 (Dr Drinker).

A commentary on Drinker P, McKhann CF: The use of a new apparatus for the prolonged administration of artificial respiration: I. A fatal case of poliomyelitis. JAMA 1929;92:1658-1660.

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