What is pneumothorax?

Also known as: collapsed lung.

The pleura are two membranes, (with minimal space between them - the pleura cavity, containing a small amount of lubricating fluid), that lie between the lung and the chest wall. A pneumothorax is air in the pleural cavity. Air leaks into the pleural space can occur suddenly or gradually and may be simple (without buildup of significant pressure but with some stable collapse of the lung) or complicated (from air continuing to leak into the pleural space causing increasing lung collapse -called a tension pneumothorax, with further chest problems).

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM