Lung paralysis

An obituary with death as a cause of paralysis

Pulmonary paralysis ( Latin paralysis pulmonis ) was the general name for a cause of death from respiratory failure after respiratory failure until the 19th century, but it does not say anything about a more precise cause, because doctors at that time could not distinguish where the pulmonary problems came from. Rattling breath or frothy sputum have been described as symptoms. An autopsy revealed a watery secretion in the alveoli (see pulmonary edema ), or a blocked pulmonary artery ("pulmonary stroke" or pulmonary embolism ).

As a result of improved diagnostics at the beginning of the 19th century, it was noticed that various clinical pictures can be concealed under "paralysis": pneumonia , catarrh (inflammation of the upper respiratory tract), tuberculosis (pulmonary consumption), emphysema or pleurisy ( pleurisy or pleurisy ), but also the result of asthma or convulsive coughing attacks. Disturbances of the heart ( heart failure ), malnutrition ( marasmus ) or simply old age could have caused death through "paralysis".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} paralysis. In: Pierer's Universal Lexicon . tape 10 . Altenburg 1860, p. 612 .
2. ↑ pulmonary edema. In: Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon . tape 2 , p. 93 .
3. ↑ lungs . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 10, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 1013.
4. ↑ paralysis . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 10, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 411.
5. ↑ lungs. In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . tape 12 , 1905, pp. 851 .
6. ↑ Carl August Wunderlich : Handbook of Pathology and Therapy . tape 3 . Ebner and Seubert, Stuttgart 1846, p. 320-321 .