Surgical pleurodesis for Vanderschueren's stage III primary spontaneous pneumothorax.
The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of various pleurodesis procedures on post-operative morbidity and late recurrence rate after surgical treatment of Vanderschueren's stage III primary spontaneous pneumothorax. Between January 2001 and June 2004, 208 consecutive patients (169 male and 39 female; mean (range) age 25 (12-39) yrs) were submitted to 220 video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical procedures for primary spontaneous pneumothorax. All patients underwent apical lung resection; 112 were assigned at random to mechanical pleural abrasion (group A) and 108 to apical pleurectomy (group B). The two groups of patients showed similar characteristics. No intra- or post-operative deaths occurred. Post-operative morbidity was 6.25% for group A and 12.9% for group B; the two groups exhibited a similar persistent post-operative air leak rate (5.3% in group A and 5.5% in group B), whereas haemothorax was significantly more frequent after apical pleurectomy (eight (7.4%) cases) than after pleural abrasion (one (0.9%) case). The mean duration of follow-up was 46 (24-66) months. Late recurrence occurred in five cases (4.6%) after apical pleurectomy, and in seven (6.2%) after mechanical pleural abrasion. Mechanical pleural abrasion by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is safer than apical pleurectomy in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax. No differences in late recurrence rate were observed between the two procedures.
Thoracic Surgery Unit, University A. Avogadro, Via Frasconi, 14, 28100 Novara, Italy. ottaviorena@libero.it
O
O
Rena
F
F
Massera
E
E
Papalia
C
C
Della Pona
M
M
Robustellini
C
C
Casadio
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018700:Pleurodesis / Q000379:methods*; D011030:Pneumothorax / Q000601:surgery*; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000379:methods