Case Report
Simultaneous Bilateral Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax:
A Case Report and a Review of the Literature
Jakrin Kewcharoen ,
1
Paul Morris,
2
Chanavuth Kanitsoraphan,
1
Hanh La,
3
and Narin Sriratanaviriyakul
3
1
University of Hawaii Internal Medicine Residency Programs, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
2
Department of Surgery, Te Queen’s Medical Center, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
3
Department of Internal Medicine, Te Queen’s Medical Center, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Jakrin Kewcharoen; jakrin@hawaii.edu
Received 18 November 2018; Accepted 25 December 2018; Published 27 January 2019
Academic Editor: Akif Turna
Copyright © 2019 Jakrin Kewcharoen et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Background. Simultaneous bilateral primary spontaneous pneumothorax (SBPSP) is an extremely rare and potentially fatal
condition. Patients usually have no relevant medical conditions. Some cases, however, may have certain risk factors such as smoking,
being young, and male gender. We reported a case of a healthy young male who presented with BPSP. Case Presentation. A 21-year-
old man with a past medical history of well-controlled intermittent asthma presented with acute worsening shortness of breath
overnight. Chest X-ray performed showed bilateral large pneumothorax with signifcantly compressed mediastinum. Chest tubes
were placed bilaterally with immediate clinical improvement. However, the chest tubes continued to have an air leak without full
lungs expansion. Computed tomography scan without contrast of the chest revealed subpleural blebs in both upper lobes. Te
patient underwent bilateral video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) with apical bleb resection, bilateral pleurectomy, and
bilateral doxycycline pleurodesis. Biopsy of the apical blebs and parietal pleura of both lungs were negative for any atypical cells
suspicious for malignancy or Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Te patient had been doing well six months following surgery with
no recurrence of pneumothorax. Conclusion. SBPSP is a rare and urgent condition that requires prompt intervention. In a young
patient without any underlying disease, surgical intervention, such as VATS, is relatively safe and can be considered early.
1. Introduction
Pneumothorax is a common medical condition defned by
a presence of air or gas in the cavity in the pleural cavity.
Te incidence of spontaneous pneumothorax, the term used
to call pneumothorax that arises by itself in the absence
of trauma, was reported to be 1.2 to 28 cases per 100,000
[1]. Patients with spontaneous pneumothorax can present as
either primary or secondary. Te term primary spontaneous
pneumothorax is used when there is no relevant medical
condition found, although these patients may have certain
risk factors, such as smoking, being young, and male gender.
In contrast, the term secondary spontaneous pneumoth-
orax is used when there is an underlying disease that is
associated with the pneumothorax, such as lung tumor or
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [2]. On rare
occasions, spontaneous pneumothorax can present bilater-
ally. Simultaneous bilateral primary spontaneous pneumoth-
orax (SBPSP) is an extremely rare presentation found in
only 1% of all spontaneous pneumothorax [2]. Tis condition
ofen causes signifcant respiratory distress and in some
cases progresses to tension pneumothorax or death. Signs
and symptoms of the SBPSP can be minimal initially thus
requiring physicians to always be suspicious and aware of
this disease [3]. Prompt management is needed to exclude
tension pneumothorax and relieve the dyspnea. Unlike other
types of pneumothorax, surgical intervention is indicated
in SBPSP as it leads to better overall outcome compared to
tube thoracostomy [1]. In this article, we report a case of a
young male with SBPSP who was found to have bilateral lung
blebs and eventually underwent bilateral blebs resection and
bilateral pleurectomy.
Hindawi
Case Reports in Pulmonology
Volume 2019, Article ID 6583842, 6 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6583842