by Erich Rosenberger M.D.

Created on: January 30, 2008

A pneumothorax is a general term for a condition where air gets in to the space between your lungs and chest wall. There are two layers of very thin tissue surrounding the lungs. The first is attached directly to the chest wall and is known as the parietal pleura. The second is attached to the lungs. These two layers are normally filled with a small amount of fluid which serves to protect the lungs. When air gets between these layers, it is called a pneumothorax.

Pneumothorax are divided in to two categories. The first is a spontaneous pneumothorax. These can be primary, which means they happen in the absence of any previous lung disorder or trauma, or secondary, which means they are complication of another preexisting lung disease. The second type is a traumatic pneumothorax, where air is able to enter the pleural space to do acute damage to the chest wall. The traumatic type has several subtypes as well, but those are not the focus of this article.

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax is a disorder which typically effects boys and men between the ages of ten and thirty. These men are usually tall and thin, although this is not an absolute requirement. There is an association with cigarette smoking, which provides about the ten millionth reason to not be a smoker. The causes of this type of pneumothorax is not well understood, but it is though to be related to a rupture of a small "bleb" or blister on the surface of the lung due to changes in the pressure around the lungs.

Secondary spontaneous pneumothorax can have several possible causes. The most common causes are complication due to COPD, asthma, infections, cystic fibrosis or even tuberculosis. Essentially anything that can cause long term damage to the tissues of the lungs can cause a rupture and allow air in to the pleural space.

SYMPTOMS

The most obvious symptom of spontaneous pneumothorax is chest pain. This pain can be very mild or quite severe and typically is worse on the side of the pneumothorax. Patients are almost always short of breath as the lungs are partially collapsing under the pressure of the air outside the lung squeezing them together and preventing them from inflating properly.

If the pneumothorax is small, there will generally not be many other symptoms aside from the pain and shortness of breath. If the hole is large enough, there will be diminished breath sounds when you listen to the chest with a stethoscope.

Most cases will resolve on their own within a day. Resolution of the symptoms does

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>