Cheyne-Stokes respiration / by George Alexander Gibson.

  • Gibson, George Alexander, 1854-1913.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cheyne-Stokes respiration / by George Alexander Gibson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    liriukner' inaki's n liricf n-fcrrnci.' in IS71 t(j tin; fiict that lii.s ilcceased fatlier liad, twenty-two years before the date of his coniinuiiication.caHcd hi.s attention to the phenomenon of f.'lipyne- Stokes respiration, and given it the name of penduhini-like breatliing, because the alternation of the breathing and the ]iaiises is as regular as tlie swinging of a pendulum. Tlie author mentions that ho has fretjuently watched the .syniptom, particu- larly in cases of tubercular meningitis. Rehn''^ dcscril)es two cases (»f pulmonary disease in children, which jiresented this symptom. One was a child of one year of age, suffering from inieumonia; the other an infant si.\ weeks old labouring under l)ronchitis. For the e.x'iilanation of the jilieno- menon he accepts the theory that there is a lessened access of arterialized blood. MerkeP records a case in which the patient, who suffered from renal disease with cardiac dilatation and pulmonary emphysema, was attacked by apoplexy a year before his death. During the cerebral symptoms, Cheyne-Stokes respiration made its appearance, and during the pause, narrowing of the pupils and absence of reaction to light were observed, along with dulness of the mind. The autlior mentions that when a question was asked at the end of a ])eriod of breathing, it was answered at the beginning of the next period after the termination of tlie intervening respiratory pause. The patient recovered from this seizure, and on his death, about a year later, it was found tliat in addition to granular kidneys, emphysematous lungs, and a dilated and hypertrophied heart, with cyanotic atrophy of the liver and spleen, there was destructive disease in the corpus striatum, optic thalamus, and pons. In another ca.se narrated subsequently,'* the .same author found tiiis type of respiration in association with endocarditis and embolism of one of the posterior branches of the right artery of the Sylvian fossa. He found that even with total absence of reaction to light the pupils became di.stinctly smaller at the beginning of the pause. ' Archil' fiir yatholo{iische Anatomie nnd Physiologie und fiir klinische Median, lii. Band, S. inr), 1871. - Jahrhiirh fiir Kinderheilknnde nnd jdiysinchc Erziehung, lunv Ki'l;,'^, iv. JnliiKiin^', S. 432, 1871. 3 Deut.iches Archiv fiir klinijiche Mediciu, viii. I'aiul, S. 4-2\, 1>1\. * Ibid., X. Baiul, S. 201, 1872. C