title: Classification of chest wall diseases.
abstract: Several disorders of the thoracic cage are known to cause respiratory failure, by means of relatively simple mechanisms, such as the increased work of breathing, which results in alveolar hypoventilation. A variety of pathogenic mechanisms may be considered, as functions of the types of thoracic disorders present. As causes of these additional potential mechanisms, we considered the following: 1) ventilation-perfusion (V/Q) inhomogeneity; 2) inability to cough; 3) malformation or acquired defect of the respiratory centres; and 4) excess blood volume and fluid retention, which aggravate work of breathing and V/Q inhomogeneity. All of these disorders can be grouped into two major categories (which nevertheless have some of the pathophysiology in common): the mechanical syndrome and the neuromuscular or paralytic syndrome. In this paper we discuss chest wall diseases falling into the first category; namely, kyphoscoliosis, fibrothorax, thoracoplasty, ankylosing spondylitis and obesity-hypoventilation. Congenital deformities of the thoracic cage, which do not have important effects on ventilatory apparatus (e.g. pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum), were also considered.
authors: Division of Pulmonary Diseases, University of Turin, Italy.
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Pozzi
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Gulotta
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000503:physiopathology; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics; D013896:Thoracic Diseases / Q000145:classification* / Q000503:physiopathology