Abstract
[Background] Recently the usefulness of outpatient drainage treatment for pneumothorax with Thoracic Egg® (TE) has sometimes been reported, but few reports have discussed the indications of TE. [Methods] We enrolled consecutive 150 patients who were placed TE in our outpatient clinic from August 2005 to March 2014 and studied the usefulness, safety, and indication criteria of TE. [Results] A median age was 31 years, ranging from 14 to 81. The ratio of primary onset to recurrent cases was 99 : 51. There were nine mild, 133 moderate, and eight severe cases. The outpatient management with TE was accomplished in 94.0% (141/150) of all patients. The total days when TE outpatient drainage management was done amounted to 600 days, showing the successful rate of TE outpatient management to be 82.1% (600/731). Nine outpatients were shifted to inpatients on the day when TE was just placed. There were four cases of pulmonary collapse which progressed, one case of bilateral pneumothorax, one case of vagovagal reflex, and three other cases. [Conclusion] By using TE outpatient drainage management for pneumothorax, we were able to manage such patients in our clinic for 82.1% of the total treatment days. Careful attention for the safety might enable us to use TE even for patients with severe pneumothorax and for aged ones. Our created criteria for the indications of TE are generally available.
