No abstract

Congenital abnormalities of lung are very rare entity, and very often under or misdiagnosed by physicians. The present case, a 12-year boy, who was initially diagnosed as unilateral massive pleural effusion with collapse of lung, and after thorough investigation, including CT scan of thorax, fiber-optic bronchoscopy, and echocardiography, a final diagnosis of unilateral lung hypoplasia was made. So if a teenager present with a unilateral opaque hemithorax in chest X-ray, this entity may be a differential diagnosis.

Context:Pneumothorax continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality among respiratory patients, but there is a paucity of data regarding etiology, clinical profile, management, and outcome of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP), from this part of the world.Aims:To assess the patients of spontaneous pneumothorax in adults with special reference to the etiology, clinical presentation, management, and outcome of SP.Settings and Design:Prospective, observational study conducted in a tertiary care institution over a period of one year.Materials and Methods:All adult patients of SP attending the department of pulmonary medicine in a tertiary hospital were studied and detailed clinical, radiological, and management data were recorded and analyzed.Results:Sixty consecutive patients, who satisfied the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Among them 10 had primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) and 50 had secondary spontaneous pneumothorax (SSP). The overall male to female ratio was 4:1. The mean age of the PSP patients was 26.3 ± 2.19 years, whereas, that of the SSP patients was 53.42 ± 2.07 years (P < 0.0001). Seventy percent of the patients were smokers. The most common clinical manifestation of PSP was chest pain (80%) in contrast to dyspnea in SSP (96%). The most common cause of SSP (42%) was found to be chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) followed by pulmonary tuberculosis (30%). The cases were managed with intercostal tube drainage (85%), simple aspiration (8.33%), and observation (6.67%). Full expansion of the lung was noted in 91.67% of the cases.Conclusion:Spontaneous pneumothorax was more common in men. SSP was far more common in this study, and the predominant underlying cause of SSP was COPD, which surpassed tuberculosis as the leading cause of SSP. This is in contrast to the results from previous studies done in our country. Intercostal tube drainage was the mainstay of treatment and the response was good.