A Study of Certain Factors Influencing Results of Artificial Pneumothorax Treatment

Material analysed For this purpose, out of our series of 3,657 patients in whom artificial pneumothorax has been tried, we have studied certain points in 781, that is, in all patients in whom artificial pneumothorax has been attempted in the period from 1st January, 1940 to 31st December, 1943, and who have completed their treatment in the institution and have been discharged. Of these 781 cases, 81 are excluded because they stayed less than one month. This leaves 700 for detailed analysis. This group is subdivided as follows : a group of 409 Patients who received artificial pneumothorax treatment for three months or more; a group of 277 composed of 100 patients who received artificial pneumothorax for less than three months and 177 in whom artificial pneumothorax was attempted but no free pleural space could be found owing to extensive adhesions; in addition 14 patients are excluded as they had either thoracoplasty or extrapleural pneumothorax subsequent to the artificial pneumothorax on the original pneumothorax side. We have analysed the figures according to the type of disease, the extent and localization of the lesion, the presence of cavities, the nature of the collapse, whether selective, partial, or contra-selective, the presence of contralateral lung disease, effusion and other complications. All the classifications have been made from a study of ru-ray films. We originally classified all our observations according