The Ambulatory Pneumothorax Clinic; Its Place in a Public Health Program

¹ President, Board of Directors, Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Chicago

Ambulatory pneumothorax is nothing new.

Ambulatory pneumothorax, as a public health instrument, has gained wide recognition in recent years. For best results, to provide for complications and to insure the proper sequence, of collapse, including thoracoplasty when necessary, the ambulatory collapse clinic should establish liaison with a hospital or sanatorium. Insofar as possible, the services of a chest surgeon should be available to meet advanced needs. In view of the number of young men being trained in the various institutions, this latter postulate is daily becoming more practical.

Ambulatory pneumothorax, from the initial injection onward, under proper conditions is not dangerous, as revealed by the figure of 28 air emboli in 83,245 injections in the seven years series of ambulatory pneumothorax cases.

Ambulatory pneumothorax is economical and applicable to both large and small communities. In large communities with an existent sanatorium and dispensary system, the dual plan implying coordinated intra-mural and extra-mural treatment offers excellent results.

Extra-mural collapse is indicated to meet the personal and public health indication of the Negro for whom there is admittedly a great shortage of beds throughout the country. In communities of any size and racial texture, a well organized plan of ambulatory pneumothorax should result in the closurean appreciable number of open cases and a consequent improvement in public health.