MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY FOR PERSISTENT PNEUMOTHORAX AND PNEUMOCYSTIS-CARINII PNEUMONIA

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.