Open Journal of Pediatrics, 2022, 12, 476-488 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojped ISSN Online: 2160-8776 ISSN Print: 2160-8741 DOI: 10.4236/ojped.2022.123051 Jun. 23, 2022 476 Open Journal of Pediatrics Pneumothorax in Children: A Study of 47 Pediatric Cases at Mali Hospital 2017-2020 Korotoumou Wélé Diallo 1* , Bourama Kané 1 , Aboubacar Sangaré 1 , Mamadou Traoré 2 , Mohamed Maba Traoré 3 , Mamadou Berthé 4 , Mariam Maiga 5 , Amadou Ibrahim Dramé 6 1 Department of Pediatrics, Mali Hospital, Bamako, Mali 2 Reference Health Center of Commune VI, Bamako, Mali 3 Department of Anesthesia and Resuscitation, Mali Hospital, Bamako, Mali 4 Reference Health Center of Commune V, Bamako, Mali 5 Department of Medical Imaging, Mali Hospital, Bamako, Mali 6 National Institute of Public Health, Bamako, Mali Abstract Objectives: Pediatric pneumothorax, whether primary or secondary (infec- tion, trauma, or iatrogenic), is sometimes life-threatening. We tried to deter- mine the clinical characteristics of pediatric pneumothorax in Mali. Materials and Methods: We collected all pediatric patients (0 - 15 years) admitted for pneumothorax in the pediatric department of the Mali Hospital from January 2017 to December 2020. Results: During this period, a total of 5569 children aged 0 - 15 years were hospitalized, of whom 47 had pneumothorax or 0.84%. Children under 5 years of age were the most affected (80%). Dyspnea was the most common reason for hospitalization (95.7%). The causes of pneumotho- rax were (in order): infectious causes dominated by bullous dystrophies (70.2%), traumatic (25.5%), and iatrogenic (4.2%). Pneumothorax was com- pressive in 42.6%. The frequency of anemia was 79.3%. Surgical drainage was performed in 87.2% and almost all (97.6%) were treated with amoxicil- lin/clavulanic acid. The mean duration of hospitalization was 10.06 days (range: 0 - 35 days): 74.5% were cured while 25.5% died. Conclusions: We reconfirmed that pneumothorax is a pediatric emergency. Children under 5 years of age are the most affected. The main etiologies are infectious bron- chopneumonia. The prevention and treatment of respiratory infections, the implementation of good bacteriological diagnostic tools, and the use of sur- gical video-thoracoscopy will reduce its mortality rate. Keywords Pneumothorax-Secondary-Child-Hospital of Mali How to cite this paper: Diallo, K.W., Kané, B., Sangaré, A., Traoré, M., Traoré, M.M., Berthé, M., Maiga, M. and Dramé, A.I. (2022) Pneumothorax in Children: A Study of 47 Pediatric Cases at Mali Hospital 2017-2020. Open Journal of Pediatrics, 12, 476-488. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojped.2022.123051 Received: April 21, 2022 Accepted: June 20, 2022 Published: June 23, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access