Nonintubated Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery for the Management of Primary and Secondary Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Nonintubated video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for the treatment of primary and secondary pneumothorax was first reported in 1997 by Nezu. However, studies on this technique are few. Research in the past 20 years has focused on the perioperative outcomes, including the surgical duration, length of hospital stay, and postoperative morbidity and respiratory complication rates, which appear to be better than those of surgery under intubated general anesthesia. This study provides information pertaining to the physiologic, surgical, and anesthetic aspects and describes the potential benefits of nonintubated thoracoscopic surgery for the management of primary and secondary spontaneous pneumothorax.