The review article discusses the prevalence, etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax. The vascular, mechanical, obstructive, infectious, and enzymatic theories of the occurrence of emphysematous lung changes as the main cause of developing spontaneous pneumothorax are described; the role of smoking as the main etiological factor and its influence on the recurrence rate of spontaneous pneumothorax are studied. The issues of choosing primary cure tactic are considered.

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... e effectiveness of conservative treatment, puncture and drainage of the pleural cavity as methods of treatment and pleurodesis for the prevention of recurrences of spontaneous pneumothorax are described. A comparativeassessment of various methods of pleural cavity obliteration is given: chemical pleurodesis (by sterile talc, minocycline, povidone-iodine, 50% glucose solution, autologous blood and its components, autologous adipose tissue, pseudomonas aeruginosa sensitive hemagglutinin, picibanil), apical pleurectomy, pleuroabrasion. The experience of using YAG-ND and CO2 as methods of physical pleurodesis, intraoperative Staple Line Coverage with polyglyconic acid and fibrin gel is described. The necessity of active surgical tactic in the treatment of patients with spontaneous pneumothorax developed on the base of undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia has been substantiated. The advantages, disadvantages, indications and contrindications to different ways of surgical treatment (thoracotomy, video-assisted minithoracotomy, thoracoscopy) are discussed. The strategy for choosing treatment methods depending on the volume of pneumothorax, the severity of bullous changes, the presence of concomitant diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the value of the Charlson comorbidity index is considered. The expediency of using video-assisted minithoracotomy as the safest and most effective method of surgical treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax has been substantiated. The effectiveness of surgical interventions depending on the timing of their implementation is considered.