Collateral Respiration Literature

During the course of some experimental work on the pathogenesis of obstructive pulmonary atelectasis we have noted a consistent occurrence of certain forms of behavior which suggests that the lobules composing single lobes of the lungs are connected collaterally with each other. Thus, after the bronchus of one lobule has been obstructed, that lobule appears to receive air from, and to give air again to, the adjacent unobstructed lobules spontaneously with the breathing. The lobule seems to be capable of a function that might be termed collateral respiration. This suggestion is, of course, contrary to the general belief that the lobular units of the bronchial tree are independent of each other at the periphery. The fact is that no certain anatomical evidence has been forthcoming, in spite of careful search by many, to show that the bronchial arborizations anastomose. To be sure, the literature contains abundant data indicating that these passages are not altogether air-tight and that when the lungs are very tensely inflated air escapes into the interstitial tissues and through the pleura and may even find entrance into the pulmonary capillaries; but this does not pertain to the situation in our experiments, where it seems that air is transferred collaterally between the lobules in the presence of normal pulmonary inflation. Continuation of our work required solution of this question. A special group of experiments was planned to determine whether air may actually pass from lobule to lobule directly through the periphery, and, if this is so, how and when it occurs. The results of the investigation are presented here in full.'