[Pneumothorax after mediastinal emphysema. The site and mechanism of pleural rupture].

By rupture of the mediastinal pleura a mediastinal emphysema may lead to a pneumothorax. An experiment imitating this process is able to point out two spots where the pleura is most likely to tear: An area as large as a thumb tip above the root of the left lung; there mediastinal pleura covers a space the width of which changes most in respirating. The border of a fatty fold based on the pericardium and covered by mediastinal pleura; it is there that maxima of tension occur by emphysematic inflation. In general, air from the mediastinum far more often enters the left pleural cavity than the right one.