Abstract
Complications of the common cold, particularly tracheitis, are indications for postponement of elective major surgery. Infection can easily spread from the upper respiratory tract into the lungs after autonomic disturbance during surgery. Animal experimentation undertaken some years ago showed that irritation of autonomic nerve endings in the pharynx can induce hyperaemia of the lungs; this in its turn attracted pathogenic organisms previously placed in mediastinal lymph nodes and which hitherto had remained inactive.
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© 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Hopkin, D.A.B. (1980). Respiratory Disease. In: Hazards and Errors in Anaesthesia. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1298-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1298-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-10158-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-1298-3
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