Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg.  2018 Aug;51(4):254-259. 10.5090/kjtcs.2018.51.4.254.

Thoracic Scoliosis in Patients with Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Konyang University College of Medicine, Korea. kyjcs@kyuh.ac.kr
  • 2Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Konyang University College of Medicine, Korea.
  • 3Department of Thoracic Surgery, Dongnam Institute of Radiological and Medical Science, Korea.
  • 4Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Konyang University College of Medicine, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) affects patients without clinically apparent lung disorder found in tall and thin young male. Scoliosis refers to curves exceeding 10° Cobb angle observed through chest X-ray and affects 2% to 4% of adolescents. Both conditions are commonly encountered in primary health care setting. The aim of this study is to access the correlation of thoracic scoliosis and PSP in adolescent.
METHODS
A retrospective analysis was conducted for patients diagnosed for PSP in Konyang University Hospital between January 2010 and March 2017. Chest X-rays of 222 patients and 155 normal control (NC) cases were reviewed to measure the Cobb angle. Greater than 10° of Cobb angle is diagnosed as scoliosis.
RESULTS
Scoliosis in patient with PSP has higher incidence than that of NC group (p < 0.001). Median value of Cobb angle is 12.9° in PSP group and 14.7° in NC group. Directional relationship between scoliosis and pneumothorax in PSP group is also observed; 40.5% cases are ipsilateral and 59.5% are contralateral.
CONCLUSION
PSP patients tend to have thoracic scoliosis more commonly compared with normal healthy adolescent. Scoliosis may contribute to heterogeneity of alveolar pressure which exacerbates subpleural bleb formation that can cause pneumothorax. The causal relationship is unclear and further studies are needed in the future.

Keyword

Thorax; Pneumothorax; Scoliosis

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Blister
Humans
Incidence
Lung
Male
Pneumothorax*
Population Characteristics
Primary Health Care
Retrospective Studies
Scoliosis*
Thorax
Full Text Links
  • KJTCS
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr