The most frequent pulmological complication of AIDS is pneumocystis ca
rinii pneumonia (PCP), which in 2 % of cases will cause a spontaneous
pneumothorax. Every AIDS patient who develops a pneumothorax is highly
suspicious for a pneumocystis carinii pneumonia too. We describe the
case of an AIDS patient who suffered from pneumothorax caused by PCP.
Conventional tube thoracostomy with continuous suction and tetracyclin
pleurodesis were unsucessful. The patient recovered however after res
ection of PCP cysts in the apical upper lobe and talcum pleurodesis by
means of minimally invasive surgery.