Objective: Etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) are not well-established and subject to debate in the pediatric age group. Our study aims to clarify the subject and discuss it in the light of available literature.

Material and Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the age, sex, etiology, smoking habits, diagnostic methods, pneumothorax percentages, first treatment approach, and treatment results of the patients with PSP by examining the patients’ records. A total of 71 patients, 65 (91.5%) male and six (8.5%) female, who were followed up and treated between 2010 and 2020 were included in the study. Descriptive statistical methods, Shapiro-Wilk test Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact test were used while evaluating the study data.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 16.23±0.81 (13–18 years). The etiology was not clear in most of the patients. However, among them, 14 (25.5%) patients had bullae and 23 (32.4%) patients had a smoking habit. The diagnosis was made by means of taking medical history, physical examination, and post-anterior (PA) chest X-ray. Treatment with nasal oxygen was initiated in 14 (19.7%) patients with a pneumothorax percentage <20%. For a total of 57 patients the first line of treatment was initiated with tube thoracostomy. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) was performed in cases where tube thoracostomy failed.

Conclusion: Different forms of initial treatment modalities exist for spontaneous pneumothorax. However, we suggest that the first option in patients of the pediatric age group should be clinical follow-up and supportive treatment, if necessary, tube thoracostomy should be applied.

Keywords: primary spontaneous pneumothorax, nonoperative, recurrence, pediatric