A case of successful treatment by artificial pneumothorax in cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis with treatment failure.

Rhee, Myung Seon; Kim, Kyung Ho; Cho, Dong Il; Rhu, Nam Soo; Kim, Jae Won

doi:1993.40.6.725

Tuberc Respir Dis > Volume 40(6); 1993 > Article

Original Article

Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases 1993;40(6):725-729.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1993.40.6.723 Published online December 1, 1993.

A case of successful treatment by artificial pneumothorax in cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis with treatment failure.

Myung Seon Rhee, Kyung Ho Kim, Dong Il Cho, Nam Soo Rhu, Jae Won Kim

Department of Chest Medicine, National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

A case of cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis with persistent positive bacilli due to resistant strain was treated successfully with artificial pneumothorax with antituberculosis chemotherapy. Negative conversion of Tubercle bacilli was noticed by four months on sputum smears and by 11 months on sputum cultures after the starting of artificial pneumothorax. The cavitary lesion was collapsed by 13 months. Artificial pneumothorax is one of the collapse therapies of pulmonary tuberculosis which had been used widely in the early 20th century before the era of antituberculosis chemotherapy. Nowadays, this method is almost neglected due to its inferiority in efficacy as compared to chemotherapy and complications. But we recommend considering this method when no other measure is likely to be useful in open cavitary lesion.

Key Words: Artificial pneumothorax, Cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis, Drug resistance