RESUMO
Objective To investigate the etiologies of spontaneous pneumothorax in flat-chest teenagers. Methods 139 teenagers with flat chest and spontaneous pneumothorax were designed as the study group, while 152 teenagers without spontaneous pneumothorax during the same period were taken as control. The ratio of thoracic transverse diameters to anterior-posterior diameters, and the ratio of tracheal length to transverse diameters were measured respectively by CT scan. The resected pulmonary tissues in 47 cases with spontaneous pneumonthorax and in 47 cases without spontaneous pneumonthorax underwent various examinations, including tension, compression, and bending tests. Student t-test was employed to perform the statistical analysis. Results The ratios of thoracic transverse diameters to anterior-posterior diameters and the ratios of tracheal length to transverse diameters in the study group were remarkably higher than those were in the control group, with significant statistical difference (P