Intermittent positive pressure breathing: a clinical evaluation of its use in certain respiratory diseases.

A series of patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency were treated with intermittent positive pressure breathing, which was combined with administration of bronchodilator drugs of the epinephrine series. Spirographs were made before and after treatment. The series included patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema, fibrosis of various kinds, senile emphysema and bronchogenic carcinoma. Although the majority showed objective improvement, a significant proportion in all groups did not, and some were made worse, apparently on a basis of check valve mechanisms unresolved by the bronchodilator drug. In cases in which the method benefited the patient, the benefit was greater than that obtained with bronchodilator drugs alone.