[The pathogenetic and therapeutic problems of spontaneous pneumothorax]

The author analyzes a number of 1,off cases of spontaneous pneumothorax, admitted to the hospital and treated. The term of spontaneous pneumothorax is not the best one, as the cause generating he it is almost always revealed, but it entered the medical language and is still used. The differential diagnosis is sometimes difficult, especially with the giant pulmonary emphysema, different from it by clinical and radiological aspects. The author recommends the following therapeutic attitude: aspiratory drainage (the flow and magnitude of the aspiration are led in terms of the flow of bronchial communication), with introduction of irritating substances through the drainage tube. In relapsed pneumothorax, or in cases in which the healing does not appear after a correct and well-conducted aspiratory drainage the surgery is required (Prof. C. Coman's procedure).