Aspiration of Gastric Contents in the Operative Period

Abstract

ALTHOUGH expected to be increasingly rare, death and a considerable morbidity still follow the aspiration of gastric contents into the lungs in the anesthetic period. The exact rate of occurrence cannot be ascertained, for the accident is not officially reportable except perhaps to obstetric mortality commissions. Every physician probably will recall at least 1 such death in his practice. It is urgent, therefore, to call attention to the problem as being to a large extent preventable, and to narrate the anesthetic experience so far as it may pertain to other fields of medicine. Aspiration occurs in the comatose patient, in . . .