Pleurodesis methods in the surgical treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax

Abstract

Pneumothorax is the collection of air in the pleural space. Pneumothorax can be spontaneous, traumatic or iatrogenic. Primary spontaneous pneumothorax mostly occurs in healthy individuals without an apparent cause, probably due to the rupture of subpleural emphysematous bullae located on the apex of the lung. It usually occurs in tall and healthy males younger than 40 years old. Primary spontaneous pneumothorax has a recurrence rate of 20-30% after the first attack, 50% after the second attack, and 80% after the third attack. Surgery is presented as a treatment option to reduce the high recurrence rate after the second attack. It has been reported that recurrence is between 10 and 20% in patients who undergo bullectomy or wedge resection with endoscopic steps alone. Therefore, various pleural pleurodesis methods are applied in addition to bulla resection in order to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery. In mechanical pleurodesis, adhesion between visceral and parietal pleura is achieved by mechanical abrasion of the parietal pleura or by total or partial removal of the parietal pleura. In chemical pleurodesis, the visceral pleura is adhered to the parietal pleura by creating irritation in the pleura with chemical agents. In cases where pleurodesis was added, the recurrence rate was reported to be between 1.7 and 2.8%. Whether the pleurectomy, pleural mechanical or chemical abrasion methods performed with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is superior for preventing recurrence is still a matter of debate. In this article, we aimed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of pleurodesis methods in the surgical treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax in the light of the literature.