Spontaneous Pneumothorax: Medical and Surgical Management

Abstract

SPONTANEOUS pneumothorax was recognized as a clinical entity when Laënnec first made the diagnosis in a living patient in 1819.¹ As recently as twenty years ago it was generally believed that spontaneous pneumothorax was indicative of pulmonary cuberculosis even though reports on the occurrence of this condition in apparently healthy persons had appeared in the literature as early as 1887.² The work of Kjaergaard³ in 1932 and subsequent reports of several large series^{4 5 6 7} in otherwise healthy persons without evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis at the time of collapse or subsequently during adequate follow-up periods have largely dispelled the idea of tuberculous . . .