[Clinical studies on the intercostal minithoracotomy method in spontaneous pneumothorax]

The thirty patients with spontaneous pneumothorax were selected and treated with intercostal minithoracotomy (MT). To study the extent of surgical damage and recurrence rate and total hospital cost in this approach, we compared MT to axillary thoracotomy (AT) with respect to nine variables: (1) operative time (2) feverish period (more than 37 degrees C) (3) total drainage volume for two days after operation (4) white blood cell counts in the 1st postoperative day (POD) (5) CRP in the 3rd POD (6) PSTI (pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor) in the 3rd POD (7) period of hospital stay after operation (8) total hospital cost (9) postoperative recurrence rate. A control group of twenty patients undergoing AT over the same period was selected. The average length of operation (recorded in minutes) in the MT group was 25 (SD +/- 10) as compared to 41 (SD +/- 12) in the AT group. The difference between two groups proved to be statistically significant (p < 0.005). The average volume of drainage after operation (recorded in ml) in the MT group was 51 (SD +/- 45) versus 114 (SD +/- 93) in the AT group (p < 0.025). The average period of postoperative fever (recorded in days) in the MT group was 2.6 (SD +/- 1.2) versus 3.6 (SD +/- 1.6) in the AT group (p < 0.01). The average value of WBC (recorded in counts/mm2) in the MT group was 10,955 (SD +/- 2,564) versus 9,966 (SD +/- 3,034) in the AT group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)