Contralateral Recurrence of Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Background Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is a common disease in young adults. With advances in its surgical treatment, ipsilateral recurrence is Methods From January 1997 to December 1999, 231 patients with PSP were reviewed and evaluated after an average of 92-months of follow-up. The clinical features and treatment of these patients were analyzed retrospectively. Results Thirty-three of these patients had contralateral recurrence (14.3%). The average time of contralateral recurrence was 22.94 months. In the univariate analysis (after Bonferroni correction), patients with contralateral recurrence of PSP had lower a body mass index (BMI) [p Conclusions Contralateral recurrence of PSP is significantly more common in patients with underweight and blebs/bullae in the contralateral lung. Single-stage bilateral surgery may be considered for these patients to circumvent the need for subsequent anesthetic and operative procedures, and additional hospitalization.