Bronchial obstruction: A main morphopathogenic factor in pulmonary diseases. Comparison of anatomoclinical and experimental facts.

The histopathologic investigation of 300 resected lungs, especially with carcinomatous lesions, as well as of the experimental material provided by bronchial ligature and by intratracheal injections of viscous substances, permits the demonstration of the effects of acute and chronic bronchial obstruction and of their evolution. In acute obstructions, the process is dominated by circulatory changes and in the chronic ones by lesions of large alveolocytes, by changes in the lung lipidic metabolism induced by the hypoventilation, as well as by alveolar reactions with lipospongiocytary macrophages and giant cells. In both modalities, the bronchial obstructive process evolves to lung atelectasis with organization of affected areas, exclusion of lobuli and bronchiolar alveolization. The bronchial obstruction, an important morphological expression of the aerogenic component in lung pathogenesis, appears to be a main factor in the reshuffling of damaged lung areas by cellulo-fibrillar restructuration.