Chronic Cor Pulmonale in the Respiratory Poliomyelitis Patient

Introduction Poliomyelitis patients with marked respiratory muscle paralysis require a carefully balanced schedule of respiratory assistance. Hypo- or hyperventilation of greater degree over any length of time must be prevented. Special rehabilitation units, such as respiratory centers, have been established for this purpose during the past decade. Their specially trained staffs follow the patients' ventilatory status and accordingly set their respiratory programs. Rate, depth, and pattern of artificial respiration and the kind of respirator to be used are decided on the basis of the clinical condition of the patient and on data obtained from pulmonary function tests, blood and expiratory gas analyses, oxygen consumptions, and tidal volumes, pH determinations, and the blood picture. The medical team must become a substitute for the patient's cephalic respiratory apparatus, which, though intact, has become ineffective because its signals do not reach the musculature. Such management results in an individualized breathing program for each