It is generally accepted that the prognosis of spontaneous pneumothorax is favorable both as to life and as to the duration of illness.1 However, there are some cases that do not follow the general rule. Tidestrom2 reported a case in which the lung never reexpanded. Numerous plastic operations were performed on it over a period of seventeen years. Fenechel3 reported two cases of pneumothorax, one caused by the intracardiac injection of epinephrine and the other by thoracentesis, in which the patients died shortly afterward as a result of these accidents.
Palmer and Taft4 stated that the usual duration of uncomplicated spontaneous pneumothorax with no pathologic change in the lung is from two weeks to two months, but that it may be much longer. They cited cases that lasted for sixteen months and twenty years.
Harvey5 reported a case in which 1,000 cc. of air was