In the preceding article1 are reported the relative rates of occurrence of infections of the respiratory tract after ether, cyclopropane and spinal anesthesia in patients who did not have any infections of the respiratory tract at the time of operation. An examination of the literature had shown no previous report comparing the rates of incidence of preoperative and postoperative infections of the respiratory tract in relation to inhalation and spinal anesthesia. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relative incidence of acute infections of the respiratory tract after ether, cyclopropane and spinal anesthesia in patients who had been shown to have the kind of low grade, chronic preoperative infections of the respiratory tract not generally considered by surgeons to be contraindications to even elective operations.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
The material was limited to 120 cases in which abdominal operations, including appendectomies, inguinal herniorrhaphies and cholecystectomies, were