Pleurectomy didn't work! pneumothorax re-occurance 6 weeks after

Over the past summer my right lung has collapsed 4 times. The first collapse was put down to rugby after I saw the doctor complaining of chest pain a week after a fall playing rugby. This was clasified as a tension pneumothorax.

A month after leaving hospital I had a spontanious pneumothorax at work followed by another as I was leaving hospital after treatment. Due to this I was sent for surgery in London. I had VATS Pleurectomy and was told that this opperation will make it impossible for my lung to collapse.

6 weeks after surgery my lung collapsed again whilst taking a short walk. I had been mobile for about 2 weeks and feeling healthy. My doctor/surgeon told me that I am the first person to have a re-occurance after his surgery.

Now I feel uncomfortable in my chest with sharp pains, pain at the end of a deep breath, a feeling of bubbling in my chest occasionally, pressure inside my chest (however an xray yesterday showed my lung fully inflated.

Also, apparently no blebs were found on my lung during the surgery.

I want to know if this has happened to anybody else and what other options are available to stop my lung collapsing?! It is a scary thing to happen and an uncomfortable few days in hospital with the chest drain!

[petrapetra]

Yes it has happened to me too. I had a total pleurectomy and the top bit of my lung stapled off after my lung collapsed several times, and six months after the surgery, I had a recurrence. It was almost a complete collapse too, as if there had been no surgery. My surgeon also said I was his first patient to have a recurrence like that. Recurrences, if they happen, are not usually as severe, the adhesions don't allow the lung to collapse much.

The worst thing about it happening again is the shock, and the feeling that there are no real, ie. more effective, options after a complete pleurectomy. I had another surgery, using talc. I don't know if it will work, maybe some people just don't form much adhesions.

There have been many times when I felt pressure in my chest too, and even breathless, as if my lung never fully healed after a collapse, but x-rays were perfect. I think if you feel bad, it's not all in your mind, the x-rays just can't pick it up.

It's been two months since my talc surgery, the good thing is, the talc surgery was a lot less traumatic than the pleurectomy, and I feel almost normal, except for poor stamina. Let me know how you are.

[PatMcCahey]

I have a persistent right pleural effusion caused by 1) radiotherapy scarring, 2) a moderately regurgitating aortic valve and 3) other problems associated with bypass surgery and radiation. Pleurodesis didn't work as the volume of transudate produced flushed out the talc. Pleurectomy is now being recommended. Is there anyone out there who has had pleurectomy for pleural effusion who can tell me whether it works? It seems like an incredibly crude methodology which has great potential to make things worse.