[Treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax in patients over 70 years of age]

Forty-eight patients over the age of 70 with spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) are analyzed. The severity of the clinical picture is conditioned by the presence of earlier lung lesions, particularly related to emphysema, and by the degree of respiratory failure prior to SP. Treatment guidelines are listed. Pleural drainage/aspiration, applied in all cases, was of no avail in 69%. Tetracycline was injected into the pleural space of 23 patients, with failure recorded in 35%. Talc was applied by thoroscopy in 5 patients, to no avail. Video-assisted endoscopic surgery was carried out in 4 patients, with good results in 3. Surgery with access by lateral thoracotomy was carried out in 20 patients, with a single failure that was explained by the patient's condition.