ARTIFICIAL PNEUMOTHORAX: WITH REPORT OF GAS ANALYSES AND EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE USE OF AIR OR NITROGEN

The present report will deal first with our experiences and results with artificial pneumothorax, and secondly with a series of gas analyses and animal experiments in regard to the use of air or nitrogen. During the past two years the attempt has been made to produce an artificial pneumothorax in eighty-three patients with advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. In two cases the method of Brauer was attempted, in all others that of Forlanini. The apparatus and method of procedure were practically similar to those so well described by Robinson and Floyd, 1 and by Hamman and Sloan ; 2 therefore it will not be necessary to give the details here. For the most part atmospheric air passed through sterile cotton filters has been the gas used. A series of cases, however, was treated with nitrogen for purposes of comparison, as will be shown in the latter half of this paper. Epinephrin (adrenalin,