Experience of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for spontaneous pneumothorax (Report of 72 Cases)

Objective To evaluate the experience of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in the management of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP). Methods VATS procedures were performed on 72 patients with SP. Among these, 9 patients were performed on both sides (6 were operated synchronously),4 patients complicated with haemothorax were adopted emergency operation, 15 patients were operated with video-assisted minithoracotomy. Results All patients were cured. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 6.7 days. The mean duration of chest drainage after surgery was 5.1 days. Postoperative complications occurred in 9 cases. There was no recurrence of SP by the follow-up visit of 0.5 month to 3.5 years. Conclusion VATS is an effective and preferred method for SP. The general technique is pulmonary bullectomy.