Features of minimally invasive treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax

  Abstract: Minimally invasive treatment using spontaneous pneumothorax avoids open-heart surgery, minimizes trauma, and has the advantages of less trauma, less pain, faster recovery, fewer surgical complications, and shorter hospital stay. Pulmonary or pleural lesions can be observed under direct vision.  If pneumothorax is not effective after thoracentesis or closed chest drainage, or if pneumothorax recurs again, surgical treatment should be performed. This is usually done by opening the chest and finding the area of air leakage for local suturing or removing the lesion. Conventional surgery is more invasive and the patient is more painful in the perioperative period. Now with the new technology of minimally invasive treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax, it is naturally a blessing for patients.  Minimally invasive treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax is a new technique that has emerged in recent years. It does not require an open chest, and three small holes (0.5 cm) are pierced in the chest wall under anesthesia to place a thoracoscope and operating instruments, and after finding the outgassing lesion, the operation is performed under the thoracoscope, thus replacing open-chest surgery and completing the operation. Patients can go down to the floor on the same day after surgery and can be discharged after 2-3 days after surgery, thus not affecting their study or work.  Our department uses minimally invasive treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax to avoid open-heart surgery and minimize trauma, which has the advantages of less trauma, less pain, faster recovery, fewer surgical complications and shorter hospital stay. The total cost of hospitalization is comparable to that of open-chest surgery because of the high cost of VATS, but the application of postoperative antibiotics, tube placement time and postoperative hospitalization time are significantly reduced or shortened because intraoperative blood transfusion is mostly unnecessary, and the total cost of hospitalization is comparable to that of open-chest surgery, and the trauma is small and easily accepted by patients.