Catamenial pneumothorax, which is a rare cause of spontaneous pneumothorax, is defined as a pneumothorax that starts at the onset of or within the first 72 hours of the menstruation period in women.1 Catamenial pneumothorax was first described by Maurer et al in 1958.2 The reported incidence of catamenial pneumothorax among the spontaneous pneumothoraces is 3–6%, but the actual incidence is 25–...

Bilateral primary spontaneous pneumothorax (BPSP) is a rare condition, accounting for ∼1.6% of spontaneous pneumothoraces. Patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax have typically low body weight. BPSP in overweight/obese patients is an exceptionally rare event. The present report describes a case of an otherwise-healthy 20-year-old male patient with BMI 29.8 kg/m(2) presented to our hospi...

OBJECTIVE To assess the role of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in the management of a recurrent primary spontaneous pneumothorax after a prior talc pleurodesis. METHODS From 1996 to 2002, we retrospectively reviewed all patients who were treated for a recurrent primary spontaneous pneumothorax after a previous talc pleurodesis. Data on the talc procedure and the recurrent pneumot...

Respiratory bronchiolitis (RB) is defined by the accumulation of pigmented macrophages in the lumen and wall of respiratory and membranous bronchioles of smokers. The aim of this study was to determine whether spontaneous pneumothorax was associated with a high prevalence of RB. Seventy-nine consecutive patients who underwent a surgical procedure (thoracotomy or thoracoscopy) for recurrence or ...

Spontaneous pneumothorax is usually caused by the rupture of subpleural blebs/bullae in the underlying lung and is one of the most common elective applications of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). VATS has been used as an alternative to thoracotomy in the treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax. Recurrent pneumothorax and persistent air leakage are quite often indications for spontaneo...