LUNGS AFTER TREATMENT OF ASPHYXIA NEONATORUM IN THE DRINKER RESPIRATOR

Recent clinical reports by one of us (Dr. Murphy) dealt with the treatment of asphyxia neonatorum by means of the Drinker respirator.1This method of treatment was instituted because the infants, many immature, either failed to breathe spontaneously or gave only occasional feeble gasps. The same degree of negative pressure (equivalent to that of a column of water from 8 to 10 cm. high) was employed in all cases, but the duration of artificial respiration was not the same in any two, as treatment was continued until a normal type of breathing could develop. Thus many infants reacted favorably and survived the neonatal period. Yet, owing to severe asphyxia, the response in some infants was not satisfactory and death occurred despite treatment continued for some time after the circulation had ceased. On necropsy many of the infants who failed to survive were found to have been suffering from intracranial