Abstract
Catamenial pneumothorax is a rare syndrome of pneumothorax which occurs at the time of menstruation. The therapy for this disease has not been established. We operated on 5 cases of catamenial pneumothorax (3 cases via thoracotomy; 2 cases via video-assisted thoracic surgery using minithoracotomy). Affected females were in the third or fourth decade. All had right-sided pneumothorax. Operative findings showed that only 1 case had bulla and all cases had defect, attenuation or, brown spot in their diaphragms. Partial resections of the lung were undertaken in 4 cases, and partial resections of the diaphragm in all cases . Postoperatively, pnuemothorax recurred in 2 cases, and contralateral pnuemothorax occurred in 1 case. Hormonal therapy was not indicated because of patient refusal.
Catamenial pnuemothorax should not be overlooked as a cause of pnuemothorax in woman . We should carefully decide the therapeutic strategy because relapses sometimes occur even after operation.
