Spontaneous pneumothorax: outpatient management with intercostal tube drainage.

In a series of 104 episodes of pneumothorax 75 percent of episodes were managed successfully on an outpatient basis by observation (23.1 percent) or by intercostal tube drainage using a flutter valve (51.9 percent). The patients for whom this treatment was not successful were admitted to hospital; 17 of them (16.3 percent of 104) were treated surgically. Bleb suturing with a stapling device and dry sponge abrasion of the pleura was the operation of choice.