• Takahiro Haga, Masatoshi Kurihara, and Hideyuki Kataoka.
• Pneumothorax Research Center and Division of Thoracic Surgery, Nissan Tamagawa Hospital, 4-8-1 Seta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, 156-0095, Japan, tknhosp@yahoo.co.jp.
• Surg. Today. 2014 Oct 1; 44 (10): 1823-7.

PurposeRe-expansion pulmonary edema is an uncommon condition that occurs when a collapsed lung is expanded. The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence and risk factors associated with re-expansion pulmonary edema which may occur as a complication when carrying out treatment for spontaneous pneumothorax.MethodsA total of 462 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax treated with chest tube drainage in inpatient settings at the Nissan Tamagawa Hospital during the 6-year period between January 2007 and December 2012 were retrospectively evaluated. The data were analyzed to identify any clinical differences between the patients with and without re-expansion pulmonary edema.ResultsRe-expansion pulmonary edema occurred on 30 (6.5 %) of the 462 patients. The duration of lung collapse in the patients with re-expansion pulmonary edema was longer than that observed in the patients without re-expansion pulmonary edema. (7.7 ± 9.1 and 2.4 ± 4.6 days). This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.0001). The extent of lung collapse in the patients with re-expansion pulmonary edema was more severe than that observed in the patients without re-expansion pulmonary edema. This difference was also statistically significant (P = 0.004).ConclusionsThe results suggest that treating spontaneous pneumothorax using chest tube drainage requires careful consideration in view of the relatively high incidence of re-expansion pulmonary edema, especially in cases associated with long periods of lung collapse or large spontaneous pneumothoraxes.

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