Anesthesia care of the patient with reactive airways disease.

The clinical characteristics of reactive airways disease have been recognized for centuries. Any bronchospastic respiratory disease process that has a degree of reversibility can be considered a reactive airways disease. More specifically, any of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease components--asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis--that are reversible can be considered a form of reactive airways disease. Asthma is the prototypical reactive airways disease. Accounts of asthmatic symptoms have appeared in the medical literature from the time of Hippocrates. In fact, the word asthma is derived from the Greek word "asthma," which means panting. Certainly, the anesthetic management of a patient with asthma can be challenging for the anesthetist. Serious complications, of which 75% are pulmonary, can occur both during and after surgery.