46 patients with spontareous pneumothorax were treated with trarsaxillary minithoracotomy

Objective To sum up the clinical trial of adopting transaxillary minithoracotomy selectively to cure spontaneous pneumothorax patients.Methods 46 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax were selected and treated with transaxillary minithoracotomy and we compared them with patients treated with anterolateral thoracotomy as a control group.Results In the transaxillary minithoracotomy group,all cases had no death and other complication,the average length of operation was (1.3±0.2) hours,total drainage volume after operation was (160±28.5)ml and period of hospital stay after operation was (8±0.5) days.The difference between two groups proved to be statistically significant(P0.05).Conclusion The transaxillary minithoracotomy is a safe,reliable and desirable mini-invasive operation when a spontaneous pneumothorax patient requires surgery in a hospital without video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS).