2003 Volume 17 Issue 4 Pages 474-479
Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has been widely used in the treatment of pneumothorax, but the high incidence of recurrence from spontaneous pneumothorax after VATS is an important problem. We examined therefore the possibility of the recurrence of a spontaneous pneumothorax after VATS of younger ages from the intraoperative findings through the thoracoscope. Subjects were 42 patients (aged 16-24 years) who underwent VATS for primary spontaneous pneumothorax. We classified the groups into three categories (numbers, occupational patterns and properties about blebs) from the thoracoscopic observations. We disscussed whether or not there was reappearance of pneumothorax in the three categories from the thoracoscopic observations. In addition, we examinated whether adjunctive procedure contributes to recurrence of pneumothorax after operation or not. We concluded that the cases apical covering with absorbable material sheet and the use of fibrin glue spray were thought to be effective in preventing recurrence of pneumothorax in cases of skip lesions from the intraoperative findings through the thoracoscope.
