Extraperiosteal Pneumothorax in Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

A Preliminary Report

¹ Thoracic Surgeon to St. Luke's and Children's Medical Center, Philadelphia; Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, Philadelphia; Wilmington Memorial Hospital, Wimington, Delaware; and the Delaware State Tuberculosis Sanatoria

1. A new method of surgical pulmonary collapse has been described. It has been performed in 12 cases.

2. Good anatomical collapse in one stage is routine, and its maintenance is relatively easy.

3. Probably there will be fewer serious complications than in either routine thoracoplasty or extrapleural pneumothorax.

4. The space should eventually be obliterated by conversion to thoracoplasty. In other words, this should be considered as a different way of staging a thoracoplasty. At the first stage the lung is collapsed and at the later, the chest wall is collapsed.

5. Other methods of obliterating the originally produced space are questionable procedures, and are not at present advisable.