Background: The indications of closed thoracostomy drainage in management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax is well known, but there is no special specification for the size to be inserted. Recently, various minimally invasive operational techniques have been introduced and researched. According to the trend, we tried to ascertain the efficacy of 12 Fr. chest tubes instead of the existing 24 Fr. chest tubes. Material and Method: Patients who were younger than 30 years old and diagnosed as primary spontaneous pneumothorax and treated with closed thoracostomy drainage were enrolled in this study. We retrospectively compared group A who were drained with 24 Fr. chest tubes from January to May 2003 with group B with 12 Fr. chest tubes from November 2003 to April 2004 on procedure time for closed thoracostomy drainage, duration of chest tube drain, duration of hospital stay, complication, and recurrence. Result: The male to female ratio was 16：3 in group A and 18：2 in group B. The mean age of patients of group A was 21.7⁑4.0 and group B was 20.0⁑3.7. The mean procedure time for closed thoracostomy drainage in group A (21.6⁑2.9 minutes) was significantly longer than group B (10.8⁑1.9 minutes)(p＜0.05). The mean duration of chest tube drain was 3.8⁑1.7 days in group A and 4.3⁑2.2 in group B, and the mean duration of hospital stay was 5.6⁑1.9 days in group A and 5.2⁑1.5 days in group B. There was no complication in both groups and 6 cases in group A (35%) and 5 cases in group B (25%) were operated because of recurrence and persistent air leakage. In conclusion, there was no statistical difference except for the procedure time for closed thoracostomy drainage between two groups. Conclusion: We concluded that there were no significant differences in efficacy between 12 Fr. chest tube and 24 Fr. chest tube in closed thoracostomy drainage for primary spontaneous pneumothorax and we found advantages of 12 Fr. chest tube in shortening procedure time because of easy and simple techniques. (Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2004;37:983-986)

Keywords: 1. Thoracostomy, 2. Pneumothorax