SPONTANEOUS PNEUMOTHORAX COMPLICATING PNEUMO- PERITONEUM THERAPY: A REVIEW AND

FOR more than two decades the use of artificial pneumoperitoneum in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis has been a well recognized procedure. This form of therapy has also found wide acceptance in the management of severe cases of pulmonary emphysema. Therefore, it is not surprising that increasing reports of complications of this therapy should find their way into the literature. Stein1 described over 40 such complications occurring in 5 to 6 % of all patients who received artificial pneumoperitoneum, and among these, spontaneous pneu-mothorax was listed as of relatively rare occurrence. A review of the litera-ature, however, reveals that this entity has been reported with increasing fre-quency in the past several years. Banyai and Jurgens 2 and Banyai3 differentiated two types of pneumothorax following pneumoperitoneum. The accidental type was frequently encountered when pneumoperitoneum was administered via the intercostal route and air entered the intrapleural space rather than the peritoneal cavity. Since this ap-proach has been abandoned this type of pneumothorax rarely ever occurs. Wit