Papers of the Week

At least a third of patients go on to suffer a recurrence following a first spontaneous pneumothorax. Surgical intervention reduces the risk of recurrence and has been advocated as a primary treatment for pneumothorax. But surgery exposes patients to the risks of anaesthesia and in some cases can cause chronic pain. Risk stratification of patients to identify those most at risk of recurrence would help direct the most appropriate patients to early intervention. Many studies have addressed the role of thoracic computerised tomography (CT) in identifying those individuals at increased risk of recurrence, but a consensus is lacking. Our objective was to clarify whether CT provides valuable prognostic information for recurrent pneumothorax.