Sign Up for a Free Account

This is an image preview.
Start a Free Account
to view the full image.

Sign Up for a Free Account For information on discounts, see Plans & Pricing

  • Nearly 3,000 illustrations, including video clips of neurologic disorders.

  • Every article is reviewed by our esteemed Editorial Board for accuracy and currency.

  • Full spectrum of neurology in 1,200 comprehensive articles.

  • Listen to MedLink on the go with Audio versions of each article.

A boy with polio in the Emerson Respirator (iron lung) viewing the photographer (Joe Clark) in the machine's mirror, circa 1955 (Herman Kiefer Hospital, Detroit, MI)

An Emerson Respirator, also known as an iron lung, was a machine that enabled a person to breathe on their own when muscle control had been lost (often due to poliomyelitis). It used negative pressure ventilation to induce inhalation. (Photo ID: NCP 4145. Source Collection: OHA 250: New Contributed Photographs Collection. Repository: National Museum of Health and Medicine, Otis Historic Archives. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License [CC BY 2.0], https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.)

Related Media

Associated Disorders

  • Aseptic meningitis
  • Bulbar polio
  • Bulbospinal polio
  • Infantile paralysis
  • Nonparalytic polio
  • Paralytic polio
  • Polioencephalitis
  • Post-polio progressive muscular atrophy
  • Post-polio syndrome
  • Spinal paralytic polio