Wheezing, Bronchial Ulcers and Atelectasis

¹ Assistant Physician, Rutland State Sanatorium, Rutland, Mass.

1) Wheezing was reported in 90 per cent of a series of 52 patients with tracheobronchitis at Rutland State Sanatorium.

2) Tuberculous tracheobronchitis appeared preponderantly in the females of this series.

3) Tuberculous tracheobronchitis was found more frequently in the age group under 35 but may appear at any age.

4) Atelectasis may be present in conjunction with the non-ulcerative type of lesion probably due to edema and prolonged spasm of the bronchioles.

5) Atelectasis is not necessarily found in the ulcerative type of bronchial lesion.

6) Twenty-seven per cent became worse after collapse therapy.

7) In this series of 52 cases complicated by tuberculous tracheobronchitis 23 per cent were dead; 31 per cent were unimproved at the end of an average of 2.9 years.

8) The end results in an uncomplicated series of 52 cases in the same stage of disease, treated over a similar period of time with the same therapeutic measures, was 5.7 per cent dead, and 5.7 per cent unimproved.

9) Conservative treatment should be practiced by withholding collapse therapy until the bronchial ulcers are healed, especially in minimal cases. Lobectomy or pneumonectomy is the procedure of choice in complete stenosis.

10) Twenty-four of the 52 cases with bronchial ulcers, or 46 per cent, were reported healed with electrocautery.