RESUMO
BACKGROUND: With the advances of video technology, thoracoscopic surgery has been applied to various areas of the thoracic surgical fields including major surgeries. Now a days, thoracoscopic surgery is performed as a procedure of choice for primary spontaneous pneumothorax. But the operative indication for the primary spontaneous pneumothorax has not been changed since the last few decades, although the procedure of choice was changed from open thoracotomy to thoracoscopy. Therefore, we thought new treatment strategy will be necessary for the management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Between January 1998 and December 1999, 149 primary spontaneous pneumothorax patients were admitted to the Kyungpook National University Hospital. Result; Of these patients, 177 were first attack pneumothoraces and the number of total attacks were 250. CONCLUSION: Analyzing the amount of pneumothorax, methods of treatment, number of recurrences, recurrence rate and hospital stay, we propose a critical pathway for establishing new treatment strategy for the management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax.