Thoracoscopic parietal pleural argon beam coagulation versus pleural abrasion in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax.

OBJECTIVE: The obliteration of pleural space is useful to prevent recurrences of spontaneous pneumothorax. We retrospectively compared the results of pleural argon beam coagulation versus pleural abrasion in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax. METHODS: Between 1996 and 2004, 136 patients underwent surgery for primary spontaneous pneumothorax, with 143 surgical procedures, all performed by VATS. Indications were recurrent pneumothorax in 107 patients, a complicated first episode in 29 and occupational activity in 7. Six patients were excluded because of postoperative histopathological diagnosis other than pulmonary emphysema. In 70 cases pleurodesis was performed with argon beam coagulation and in 67 by Marlex degrees mesh abrasion. These techniques were employed during two different periods. Median follow-up was 68 months in the Marlex degrees group and 41 in the argon group. The two groups resulted as being homogeneous for gender, age, smoking attitude and surgical indication. Statistical analysis was done with chi2 and Fisher's test. RESULTS: No postoperative mortality was observed. Mean recovery time was 5 days. There were three patients with postoperative bleeding who underwent re-operation. There were nine cases of prolonged air-leak, one needing surgical exploration. Nine recurrences were noted, all requiring surgery. Two recurrences were observed in the group treated by pleural abrasion (3.4%) and seven in the group treated by argon coagulation (10.7%). The Fisher's test failed to demonstrate a statistical significance between the two procedures in terms of recurrence rate (p=0.18). Multivariate analysis yielded no risk factors for recurrences. Postoperative complications resulted as being equally distributed in both groups. CONCLUSION: After primary spontaneous pneumothorax, pleurodesis induced by argon beam parietal pleural coagulation resulted as being no better than that obtained by pleural abrasion in the prevention of recurrences. No benefits in terms of postoperative complications resulted by use argon beam coagulation.