ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the health issues related to the respiratory system. It also explains the epidemiology, morbidity, pathophysiology, preoperative assessment, investigations and medication for the same. These issues include asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchogenic carcinoma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis (CF), restrictive lung disease, sarcoidosis, anaesthesia and sleep apnoea syndrome (SAS) and smoking and anaesthesia. Bronchiectasis is characterized by long-standing abnormal dilatation of bronchi with chronic inflammation. This chronic inflammatory process results in patients being extremely productive of sputum with a predisposition to either chronic infection or colonisation with intermittent acute episodes of infection. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide for men and women, causing approximately 1.2 million deaths per year. Cystic fibrosis is the most common genetic Caucasian disease with an incidence in northern Europeans of about 1 in 3000 births. Diagnosis is usually made in infancy and the sweat test is easy and reliable.
