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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    5. The peculiar rharacters of Llie hyperpnoeji are caiiseil \>y llic gradually increasing recovery of the centre and hy progressive diminution of its excitability. G. The role attributed to spasm of the vessels in the causation of the symptom does not ajt[)ear to rest on suMiciently certain facts. 7. The fri'ipu'iicy with which the .symptom is associated with chronic renal disease depends less on tlic kidney aflection than on the va.scular degeneration with which it is associated. The urinary troubles only play a secondary part, by producing cardiac or ])uliiionary affections, ami by altering the state of the blood. The development of the phenomenon in these cases does not seem to have a direct relation to an intoxication by extractive matters or ammonium carbonate. 8. Occurring in very diverse conditions Cheyne-Stokes breathing has no precise diagnostic value. 9. The intermittent appearance of the phenomenon and its com- plete disappearance prove that it does not depend on a profound alteration in the structure of the respiratory centre. 10. Although most commonly the precursor of a speedy fatal i.ssuc, the symptom may be compatible with survival for a long period. 11. Without extolling narcotics it may be stated that in cases of Cheyne-Stokes respiration they may render good service, and that their dangers have been considerably exaggerated. Langer^ describes a case of tumour of the pons in a young woman, where Cheyne-Stokes respiration was present in its typical development. In an investigation into the periodic breathing of frogs, Langen- dorff and Siebert- note that after the blood-supply to the medulla has been cut off, frogs show a periodic rhythm of respiration, and that the result is the same, whether the blood-supplv is cut off by tying the aorta or bleeding the animal, while substitution of a physiological solution of common salt for the blood sometimes allows the ordinary type of respiration to continue, but often modifies it in various ways. Stimulation of the skin during the pauses between the periods of breathing causes the appearance of ' ^[ed^zinMle Jahrhiicherder k. k. Geselhchaft der Atntc in Jl'ten, S. 515, 1S81. - Archivfiir Phusinlinju; Jahrj^uni,' 1881, S. 241.