Pneumothorax; treatment approach and results

Pneumothorax, which is defined as presence of air in intrapleural space and collapse of lung secondary, is one of the most common cases met in thoracic surgery practice. While there may be a lot of sources of air in intrapleural space, the most common source is the tear of visseral pleura and air leak from lung paranchyme. As spontaneous and traumatic pneumothorax are anyway frequent, due to the diagnostic invasive methods and amount of intensive care unit patients treated, iatrogenic pneumothoraxes have begun to seen more frequently then it was in the past.In this retrospective study, the records of 722 pneumothorax patients (153 of whom are women and 569 are men) diagnosed and treated between 04.22.2003 and 03.22.2009 at Gazi University Medical School Thoracic Surgery Department were researched for age, genre, the reason of pneumothorax, symptoms, number of days which thorax catheter was present, undergoing surgery or not , the use of pleurodesis or not, which type operation was performed, relapse, the day of hospitalization and mortalite rate.Number of patients underwent tube thoracostomy was 722, 153 of them was primery spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP), 41 was secondary spontaneous pneumothotax (SPS), 231 was iatrogenic pneumothorax and 297 of them was traumatic pneumothorax. A sixty three of these 722 patients treated with tube thoracostomy, underwent surgery. Axillary thoracotomy was performed to 18 patients becouse of extended air leak, 16 patients for relapse pneumothorax and bullae formation, and 1 patient for iatrogenic (after jugular catheter) pneuomothorax. 8 patients were treated by video assisted thoracic surgery technique. Posterolateral thoracotomy was performed to 3 patients for firearm injury, 7 patients for traffic accident, 2 patients for extended air leak and 8 patients for bullea formation and pneumothorax. 7 patients were died after surgery.As a result, pneumothorax is a pathology which needs emergent intervention that every doctor can met anytime. Decision of treatment in pneumothorax must be made according to the ethiology, the degree of pneumothorax and of course the clinical state. To prevent relapses, pleural abration and pleurodesis can be made. The aim of surgery is to prevent relapses and perform the exact treatment.