Benign Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Excerpt The term "pneumothorax" is thought to have been used first by Itard in 1803, when he recognized five cases at autopsy (1). Kjaergaard (2) reported that McDowell in 1856 was the first, apparently, to describe spontaneous pneumothorax occurring in a healthy person. Although at first believed to be related to pulmonary tuberculosis, spontaneous pneumothorax was recognized to be a benign entity by Kjaergaard; this was emphasized subsequently by other studies (1, 3, 4). The present report is based on 200 consecutive cases of benign, non-traumatic, non-tuberculous pneumothorax, not associated with other pulmonary disease as pneumonia or tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS