Abstract
An autopsy case of “respirator lung” occurring in a 56-year-old housewife with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is presented. The patient was admitted because of dysarthria and muscular atrophy of the upper extremities. During the clinical course she suffered from pneumonia and was transferred to the Respiratory Care Unit. Her ventilation was assisted by a Bird respirator operating from an oxygen drive. She recovered from pneumonia after two weeks with medication, but the assisted ventilation with bugle oxgen concentration was continued for 70 days until the patient's death. Postmortem examination revealed gross and histological evidence of oxygen alveolopathy including intra-alveolar fibrin exudate, hyaline membranes along alveolar walls, interstitial edema and early fibrosis and diffuse hyperplasia of the alveolar lining cells with the formation of a cuboidal epithelial layer.
