[The pneumothorax as complication of continuous artificial ventilation (author's transl)].

The authors discuss briefly the main lesions produced during intensive therapy in 500 patients who died under treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of Padova during the period Dec. 13, 1971--Sept. 9, 1974. Specifically 36 cases of pneumothorax induced by automatic respiration are analyzed from a clinical and pathological viewpoint.