Present status of spontaneous pneumothorax in Japan.

Today, spontaneous pneumothorax (SPT) is a common disease in Japan. It is easy to diagnose but difficult to estimate how to manage it. The curative treatment of SPT is resection of the ruptured bulla. In Japan, almost all surgical cases of SPT are operated by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). The recurrence rate after VATS is only a few percent in our center. The cause of recurrence is usually attributable to overlooking bullae and newly developed bullae. Newly developed devices in Japan which help to reduce the recurrence rate are presented, and the Japan Association for Pneumothorax (JASP) and the Pneumothorax Center are introduced.