Abstract
We studied pulmonary tumors accompanied by spontaneous pneumothorax.
From January 1995 to November 1998, we experienced 62 cases of spontaneous pneumothorax. There were 59 men and 3 women, aged 15 to 83 years old with an average age of 33.3 years. Twelve patients were 40 years old or more. Six pulmonary tumors were detected in 5 patients by preoperative chest CT scan. All of the 5 patients were male and their ages were 42, 53, 54, 58 and 70 years. Three of them had emphysema. The diameters of the tumors were 4 mm in two cases, 5 mm in two, 10 mm in one and 15 mm in one. No tumor could be detected by plain chest roentgenograms. We could not obtain the histological diagnosis of the tumors before the operations. The final diagnoses of the resected tumors were as follows : well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma in one case, bronchioloalveolar cell carcinoma in one, organizing pneumonia in one, intrapulmonary lymph node in one and a combined histology of intrapulmonary lymph node and focal fibrosis in the last case. Of the two cases of lung cancer, an additional lobectomy with lymph node dissection (R2a) was performed in one case. We performed only partial resection of the lung in the other case, because of severe emphysema. The pneumothorax in these cases was not related to the tumors, because all of the 6 tumors were located apart from the visceral pleura.
In conclusion, we should keep in mind the possibility of associated lung diseases, especially malignant ones in elderly patients with pneumothorax.
