Probably nowhere in medicine is a cause and effect relationship between a given lesion and the resulting clinical picture more clearly demonstrable and predictable than in the case of partial or complete obstruction of a bronchus. Most of the exact knowledge on the subject is found in the epochal work of Chevalier Jackson. While such a relationship is most evident when the obstruction is due to the presence of a foreign body, conditions arise within the organism itself that can be evaluated with like accuracy. It is the purpose of this paper to report on a series of patients in whom tuberculous lesions of various kinds produced the characteristic clinical picture that results from partial obstruction of a main bronchus.
Obstruction to a major bronchus may be complete or partial. If the obstruction is complete, ventilation of the affected side ceases and the air in the alveoli is absorbed1