Abstract
Bronchospasm is a common diagnosis during anesthesia but it is rarely the correct one. Bronchoconstriction or narrowing of airways from loss of lung volume is a far more common cause of wheezing and difficulty with ventilation during anesthesia. The main reason for distinguishing between these two entities is that the treatment is different. Administration of bronchodilators is ineffective and wastes valuable time if the cause of wheezing and airway obstruction is loss of lung volume or bronchoconstriction.
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Larson, C.P., Jaffe, R.A. (2017). Bronchospasm vs. Bronchoconstriction: A Different View. In: Practical Anesthetic Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42866-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42866-6_7
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