One hundred and twenty three patients underwent 137 thoracostomies for spontaneous pneumothorax in the department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Gyeongsang National University from January 1987 to December 1994. There were 118 men and 6
women
and average age was 32.4 years. The two most common surgical indications were recurrent pneumothorax and continuous air leakage. Other indications were visible bullae on simple X-ray, previous contralateral pneumothorax, incomplete expansion of
the
lung, and bilateral pneumothoraces.
Methods of thoracotomy were subaxillary thoracotomy in 82 cases, lateral minithoracotomy in 12 cases and posteral thoracotomy in 43 cases. Operation time was 63.0±30.8, 98.3±37.9, 186.9±87.9 minutes respectively, and postoperative chest tube
keeping
time was 5.2±4.1 days in subaxillary thoracotomy, 6.2±5.0 days in minithoracotomy and 10.0±5.8 days in posterolateral thoracotomy. Bullae were present mostly at the apex in spontaneous and tuberculous pneumothorax comparred to the cases of
chronic
obstructive or emphysematous lung disease, where there were no redilection of presence of bullae(p<0.01). Operative procedures were wedge resection, bullae obliteration and lobectomy. Postoperative complications were continuous air leakage,
bleeding,
brachial plexus injuryj, empyema, and wound infection, but all the complications were cured by the time of discharge. There was no mortality.
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