Emphyse’ma

(em-fi-se’-ma). A disease of the lungs in which the partitions between neighbouring air cells are largely broken down; in this condition the blood has le chance of complete aeration, and bronchitis is a frequent complication. The treatment is generally by inhalations, to which the nurse has to attend, or by compre ed air baths, which need a special chamber such as that at the Brompton Consumption Hospital. The portable pneumatic chamber, consisting of a hollow cylinder containing air plunged into a larger cylinder containing water, the air-containing cylinder being fitted with a tube and mask, is sometimes used. The air is condensed by putting weights in the air cylinder, and rarefied by drawing off water. Surgical emphysema is the occurrence of air under the skin, a phenomenon occasionally seen after wounds of the lung, rupture of trachea, and other lesions of the respiratory organs. — s. 51 —