Abstract
We have experienced 8 cases of spontaneous hemopneumothorax during the last 10 years. All patients were male with a mean age of 34.8 years. As the initial subjective symptoms, all patients complained of chest pain and dyspnea. An emergency thoracotomy was required in 7 patients because of bleeding with or without cardiovascular collapse. Mean drainage volume of intrapleural hemorrhage was 3876 ml at the time of thoracotomy. Site of bleeding was from an interrupted end of funicular structure from the parietal pleura in 7 patients and from a ruptured bulla in 1 patient. We had 2 patients who experienced postoperative complications: prolonged air leakage and reexpansion pulmonary edema developing immediatery after surgery in one each.
We conclude that early stage thoracotomy should be advocated to stop the bleeding and evacuate the coagulated blood from the pleural cavity to prevent the development of empyema or trapped lung due to fibrothorax.
