[Management of surgical approach for intractable secondary spontaneous pneumothorax]

Secondary spontaneous pneumothorax (SSP) such as lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is intractable or repeated the recurrence of pneumothorax. The most effective chemical pleurodesis for intractable pneumothorax is talc poudrage and so on that is associated with a reduction in the rate of pneumothorax recurrence. However, severe and broad pleural adhesion due to the pleural interventional procedures sometimes cause serious bleeding when the patients undergo lung transplantation. We must be considered for new approaches to these intractable secondary pneumothoraces which replaced traditional conservative and surgical approaches. We had proposed new 2 approaches of total pleural covering (TPC) and awake surgical intervention (ASI) for intractable pneumothorax. We applied the TPC modified with coverage of air leak points with polyglycolic acid (PGA) sheet to 5 patients with intractable bilateral pneumothorax to reduce the risk of excessive bleeding by chemical pleurodesis in lung transplantation. The bilateral pneumothorax was well controlled, and no recurrence has been observed. TPC is reliable procedure for management intractable bilateral SSP. For 12 high-risk patients with other underling pulmonary diseases on general poor conditions, a surgical intervention was performed in awake condition. The air leaks were stopped in 11 cases except for 1 case. The recurrence of pneumothorax after surgery was 2 cases. ASI for intractable secondary pneumothorax can be applicable to selected patients with deteriorated general condition.