Introduction:

The presence of air within the pleural cavity is defined as pneumothorax. The initial surgical treatment is pleurostomy, which can lead to complications associated with several factors, among which is the diameter of the intrathoracic probe that is used.

Objective:

To evaluate the outcomes of the treatment with pleurostomy in patients with spontaneous pneumothorax at “Manuel Ascunce Domenech” University Hospital.

Method:

A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive study was conducted from September 2012 to September 2017. We studied 63 patients affected by spontaneous pneumothorax who received pleurostomy as initial treatment.

Results:

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax accounted for 56 % of the cases. From the total amount of patients, 82 % were smokers. In all patients, the predominant symptom was pain. Complications were more frequent with the use of pleural probes of smaller diameter (86 %). The primary spontaneous pneumothorax was the most frequent. The predominant causes of secondary pneumothorax were bullous emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In all the cases, some of the symptoms of pleural syndrome with absolute predominance of pain were present. The greatest number of complications occurred in smoking patients.

Conclusions:

Pleurostomy, with the use of the drainage catheter, is the initial treatment for all patients with spontaneous pneumothorax in our hospital, regardless of the diameter of the probe to be used according to the type of pneumothorax (primary or secondary).

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )