A pneumothorax occurring from disease of the lung. Not the result of trauma.
A condition occurring when an opening is created on the surface of the lung allowing air to leak into the pleural cavity.
The spontaneous entrance of air into the pleural cavity. The pressure may collapse the lung and displace the mediastinum away from the side of the lesion.
The presence of air within the chest cavity, resulting from a disease or other natural causes, is known as pneumothorax. When air and blood accumulate in this space, it is referred to as pneumohemothorax.
Pneumothorax occurring from causes other than the deliberate introduction of air or gas into the pleural cavity from without; more common in men, the maximum incidence is between the ages of 20 and 40 years. It may be due to: air escaping from the lungs and bronchi, probably from rupture of a vesicle on the lung surface; rupture of a lung abscess; gangrene of the lung; rupture of an empyema into the lung; accidental puncture of the lung during surgical tapping of the pleural cavity; perforation of a lung by a broken rib; penetrating wounds of the chest; an ulcerating growth in the gullet; rupture of a diseased bronchial gland; an ulcer of the stomach or duodenum perforating the diaphragm into the pleural cavity; or an accumulation of gas due to infection by a gas-producing organism— generally the result of wounds. A sudden spontaneous pneumothorax in an apparently healthy person is not very unusual and is known as simple benign pneumothorax. It is sudden in onset and the patient’s condition may become quite alarming at once. On the other hand, the condition may develop quietly, with surprisingly little pain or dyspnea, and may only be discovered on routine x-ray examination of the chest. When acute in onset, the patient is seized with pain while coughing or engaged in extra exertion. There is often a feeling of “something giving way” in the chest and at once there is great shortness of breath, with signs of collapse, and often severe mental anguish. The skin may be blue, cold, and clammy, breathing is rapid and shallow, the temperature subnormal, with rapid heartbeat, and weak pulse. The patient is often restless, very alarmed, and unable, or afraid, to speak. In rare cases, death occurs within minutes, but as a general rule the acute symptoms subside within a few hours, though the temperature rises and the rapid breathing persists for a time. Course and prognosis are profoundly influenced by the originating cause, but in the majority of cases no treatment is required, other than a few days’ rest in bed, with repeated x-rays to watch the progress of re-expansion of the lung. Where there is other complicating disease then, of course, the picture is altered and the pneumothorax is but a complication of the more general disorder. Also called simple pneumothorax.