Midterm results of endoscopic treatment of spontaneous primary pneumothorax at Dong Nai General Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Primary spontaneous pneumothorax is a common illness among young people. Currently, thoracic surgery in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax is routinely performed at central hospitals and some provincial hospitals. At the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Dong Nai General Hospital, thoracoscopic surgery for this illness has been performed from 2017 to present, the study aimed to evaluate the preliminary results of this technique.

Subjects and methods: Retrospective, descriptive study of 49 patients who underwent thoracic surgery for primary spontaneous pneumothorax at Dong Nai General Hospital from April 2019 to April 2021.

Results: There were 49 patients in the study with a mean age 35.24 ± 14.74, of which 90.2% were male. The common symptoms were chest pain (78.4%) and massive pneumothorax on chest X-ray (72.5%) with the higher prevalence of right side than left (54.9% vs 41.2%). Total thoracoscopic surgery accounted for 84.3%, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) accounted for 13.7%, there was one case of open surgery accounting for two percent. Pleurodesis was performed in 35.3% of cases. The average surgical time was 70.78 ± 50.22 minutes and the mean postoperative time was 4.76 ± 3.10 days. There were two cases of prolonged air leak requiring reoperation (3.9%). Mid-term results (follow-up ≥ 12 months), there were 2 cases of recurrence (3.9%) including 1 case of reoperation, there was no death in our study population.

Conclusion: Thoracoscopic surgery for primary spontaneous pneumothorax at Dong Nai General Hospital is highly effective with the following advantages such as ease of performance, small scars, postoperative pain relief, reduced length of stay and low recurrence rate.