Primal drugs are tetracycline and talc in chemical pleurodesis. But they are not available. Therefore, we performed chemical pleurodesis
using minocycline in patients with spontaneous pneumothorax and compared with talc pleurodesis. And we observed the effects
and efficiency of treatment. From March 2004 to February 2010, spontaneous pneumothorax patients whose continuous air
leakage lasted more than 5 days but for whom surgery were not indicated or didn’t want surgery underwent chemical pleurodesis
with minocycline and talc. Sixteen pneumothorax patients were studied in minocycline pleurodesis group. And 22 pneumothorax
patients were studied in talc pleurodesis group. Continuous air leakages disappeared in 13 patients (81.3%) among the 16 minocycline
pleurodesis group and in 20 patients (90.9%) among the 22 talc pleurodesis group. Complications included chest pain in all 14
patients (87.5%), leukocytosis in 10 patients (62.5%), fever and chill in 7 patients (43.6%) in minocycline pleurodesis group and chest
pain in all 19 patients (86.4%), leukocytosis in 17 patients (77.3%), fever and chill in 14 patients (63.6%) in talc pleurodesis group.
Our findings demonstrated that minocycline pleurodesis had less effect than talc pleurodesis but had good results with acceptable
complications. However, long term follow-up is necessary to evaluate the accurate effects of treatment and recurrence in a large
number of patients.
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