Assessment and review of treatment for secondary spontaneous pneumothorax using medical thoracoscopy-assisted argon plasma coagulation in association with autologous blood pleurodesis

Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of medical thoracoscopy-assisted argon plasma coagulation in association with autologous blood pleurodesis in spontaneous pneumothorax. Patients and methods: Three male patients with spontaneous pneumothorax were treated; medical thoracoscopy-assisted argon plasma coagulation combined with autologous blood pleurodesis was conducted for all patients whose duration of the air leak exceeded 7 days. We systematically reviewed all of the relevant literature to analyze and sum up the treatments of secondary spontaneous pneumothorax. Results: The air leaks were all sealed and no recurrence of pneumothorax was reported. No complications of fever, bleeding, or signs of infection were observed during the process. Conclusion: The authors believe that the combination of medical thoracoscopy-assisted argon plasma coagulation and autologous blood pleurodesis is safe and effective. However, due to the number of patients included in this uncontrolled case study, more cases will be collected in the future. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.