title: Assessment of spontaneous pneumothorax in adults in a tertiary care hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pneumothorax continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality among respiratory patients, but there is a paucity of data regarding etiology, clinical profile, management, and outcome of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP), from this part of the world.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the patients of spontaneous pneumothorax in adults with special reference to the etiology, clinical presentation, management, and outcome of SP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, observational study conducted in a tertiary care institution over a period of one year.
  
  
  METHODS
  All adult patients of SP attending the department of pulmonary medicine in a tertiary hospital were studied and detailed clinical, radiological, and management data were recorded and analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty consecutive patients, who satisfied the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Among them 10 had primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) and 50 had secondary spontaneous pneumothorax (SSP). The overall male to female ratio was 4:1. The mean age of the PSP patients was 26.3 ± 2.19 years, whereas, that of the SSP patients was 53.42 ± 2.07 years (P < 0.0001). Seventy percent of the patients were smokers. The most common clinical manifestation of PSP was chest pain (80%) in contrast to dyspnea in SSP (96%). The most common cause of SSP (42%) was found to be chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) followed by pulmonary tuberculosis (30%). The cases were managed with intercostal tube drainage (85%), simple aspiration (8.33%), and observation (6.67%). Full expansion of the lung was noted in 91.67% of the cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spontaneous pneumothorax was more common in men. SSP was far more common in this study, and the predominant underlying cause of SSP was COPD, which surpassed tuberculosis as the leading cause of SSP. This is in contrast to the results from previous studies done in our country. Intercostal tube drainage was the mainstay of treatment and the response was good.
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Midnapore Medical College, Midnapore, India.
authors: Aparup
authors: A
authors: Dhua
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, India.
authors: Arunabha Datta
authors: AD
authors: Chaudhuri
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, India.
authors: Susmita
authors: S
authors: Kundu
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, India.
authors: Sumit Roy
authors: SR
authors: Tapadar
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
authors: Sourin
authors: S
authors: Bhuniya
authors: Department of Medicine, Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata, India.
authors: Bijan
authors: B
authors: Ghosh
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, College of Medicine and Sagar Dutta Hospial, Kolkata, India.
authors: Subhasis
authors: S
authors: Mukherjee
authors: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospial, Bankura, West Bengal, India.
authors: Soumya
authors: S
authors: Bhattacharya
keywords: Intercostal tube drainage; primary spontaneous pneumothorax; secondary spontaneous pneumothorax; spontaneous pneumothorax