Use of endobronchial one-way valves reveals questions on etiology of spontaneous pneumothorax: report of three cases

Spontaneous pneumothoraces are believed to arise when air from the supplying airway exit via a ruptured visceral pleural bleb into the pleural cavity. Endobronchial one-way valves (EBVs) allow air exit (but not entry) from individual segmental airways.

Systematic deployment of EBVs was applied to three patients with secondary spontaneous pneumothoraces and persistent airleak. In all cases, balloon-catheter occlusion of the upper lobe bronchus stopped the airleak.

EBVs applied to individual upper lobe segmental airways failed to terminate the airleak, which only stopped after placements of multiple EBVs to occlude all upper lobe segments. The observation questions the traditional belief of 'one-airway-one-bleb-one-leak'in spontaneous pneumothorax.

Author: Wai Cho YuYiu Cheong YeungYiu ChangYuet Ling TsangKwok Chu KwongHau Chung KwokY C Gary Lee
Credits/Source: Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2009, 4:63

Published on: 2009-11-07

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