CT features associated with contralateral recurrence of spontaneous pneumothorax.

Introduction: Spontaneous pneumothorax recurs in 30-54% of patients without surgery. Identifying individuals likely to suffer a recurrence, who might benefit from pre-emptive surgery, is challenging. Previous meta-analysis suggested a relationship between contralateral recurrence and specific CT findings.
Methods: We analysed CT images and recurrence rates of 243 patients seen by our tertiary referral pneumothorax service.
Results: We validated the meta-analysis observation that contralateral lung cysts are associated with a higher risk of contralateral recurrence in younger individuals. Furthermore, we observed that the size of contralateral cysts to be associated with increased contralateral recurrence in younger patients.
Conclusion: The detection of contralateral lung cysts might therefore help identify younger patients more likely to benefit from pre-emptive surgery.
(© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Physicians.)