[Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in the treatment of pneumothorax: 107 consecutive procedures].

The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in primary and secondary spontaneous pneumothoraces. Over a 37-month period, 107 videothoracoscopic interventions were performed to treat spontaneous pneumothorax in 105 patients, 78 men and 27 women, whose average age was 28 years.Indications for surgery included recurrent ipsilateral pneumothorax (47 cases), persistent air leak (23 cases), hypertensive pneumothorax (14 cases), history of contralateral pneumothorax (13 cases), and elective surgery (10 cases). All of these patients were treated by endoscopic resection of the bullae (or apical zone in cases where the suspected abnormalities, or bullae, could not be visualized) plus physical pleurodesis. There were no perioperative deaths. Complications occurred in 6% of the cases of primary spontaneous pneumothorax and in 45% of the cases of secondary spontaneous pneumothorax. The complications among the secondary pneumothorax patients ranged widely from postoperative subcutaneous emphysema (resolved through simple, unassisted observation) to the need for an accessory minithoracotomy. Two patients (1.8%) suffered a recurrence of pneumothorax 4 and 8 months, respectively, after VATS treatment.