Advice

All patients discharged following a pneumothorax should be given verbal and written advice to immediately return to the ED should they become breathless.

Other advice should also be given on the following:

Smoking

Smokers should be advised to quit and seek assistance from their GP to successfully achieve this.

Learning bite

Men who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day have 100 times the risk of developing a pneumothorax compared to men that don’t smoke.

Flying

Changes in atmospheric pressure can rapidly convert simple pneumothoraces to tension pneumothoraces with catastrophic consequences. The BTS Air Travel Working Party recommends that patients should be advised to avoid flying for at least a week after a chest radiograph has confirmed complete resolution of their spontaneous pneumothorax, or until they have recovered from a definitive surgical procedure aimed to prevent pneumothorax recurrence. The previous advice to avoid flying for 6 weeks is not supported by existing evidence. It is advised that 2 weeks should have elapsed following confirmed resolution if the pneumothorax was traumatic in origin, which corresponds to the advice issued by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Learning bite

Patients should be advised to avoid flying for at least a week after a chest radiograph has confirmed complete resolution of their spontaneous pneumothorax.

Diving

The British Thoracic Society Fitness to Dive Group recommends that underwater diving should be permanently avoided after a pneumothorax, unless the patient has had bilateral open surgical pleurectomy.

Learning bite

Underwater diving should be permanently avoided after a pneumothorax, unless the patient has had bilateral open surgical pleurectomy.