Humidity and the anesthetized patient.
Damage to the ciliated cells of the tracheobronchial tree and incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications were measured by point-scoring systems in 202 patients who breathed dry and humidified anesthetic gases for 225 +/- 78 min. The incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications decreased as the humidity of administered anesthetic gases increased from 0 to 32.5 mg H2O/l. A similar relationship was found between the amount of inhaled moisture and the damage to the ciliated epithelium of the tracheobronchial tree. These results appear to indicate that a high inspired humidity is beneficial for operations on normothermic patients, and that cellular damage caused by dryness is a possible contributory factor in the production of the pulmonary atelectasis that follows stoppage of the mucociliary transport system in the immmediate postoperative period.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000758:Anesthesia; D002467:Cell Nucleus; D002923:Cilia; D003593:Cytoplasm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000166:cytology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology