Introduction. The evolution of treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) has gone from conservative and punctures treatments to the use of modern videothoracoscopic technologies. Proposed in 1910 by Jacobeus thoracoscopy has been actively used for SP treatment in 70-s of XX century.
Objective. To show the possibility of videothoracoscopic operations in the treatment of patients with spontaneous pneumothorax at the example of the Odessa Regional Hospital.
Materials and methods. In our clinic over the past 15 years (1997–2011) videothoracoscopic operations at SP were conducted in 616 patients. Among them 532 men and 84 women. The average age of patients was 39 years and ranged from 18 to 80 years. All VTO lung resection should be divided into closed VTO lung resection (CVTLR) and videoassisted lung resection (VALR), when the operations are complemented by minithoracotomy (4–5 cm) access.
Discussion. CVTRL and VARL were performed at sufficiently massive defeat of lung tissue by bullas with a defect of the latter. The absence of visible perforation, isolated small bullas were an indication for other method of treatment: ligation, laser or electrocoagulation, pleurodesis. Conversion at the VTO was absent. Terms of drains removing after surgery ranged from 4–5 days at the VTO with resection of lung to 7–8 days — with coagulation or laser pleurodesis. Bed-day at the VTO totaled (5.2±0.2) days. Relapses of the disease using this method of surgical treatment were 3.6%. There were no lethal outcomes for all run-time of the VTO at SP in our hospital.
Conclusions. Videothoracoscopic operations are more effective than standard open surgery. The number of recurrences of spontaneous pneumothorax after videothoracoscopic operations were 3.6%, and after open surgery — 2.6%. Method of choice for surgical treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax is videothoracoscopic operations. Videoassisted operations are more efficient and allow to perform low-impact operations using multiple-cross-linking domestic vehicles apparatuses.