[Indications for the surgical treatment of so-called idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax (author's transl)].

Of 93 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax treated between 1969 and 1974, only 23 cases were managed surgically. The criteria for surgical intervention are discussed and the most important indications are summarized as follows: unsuccessful drainage over 10 to 14 days, recurrence of pneumothorax affecting the same lung, dangerous complications such as haemothorax, incipient inflammation et. The general conformity with examples taken from the literature is demonostrated.