Treatment of pneumothorax in the patient with AIDS.

With the diagnosis of the adult immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a patient's risk of sustaining a nontraumatic pneumothorax increases to 450 times that of the general population. The approach to pneumothorax that occurs in the patient with AIDS differs from the strategy that is used for spontaneous pneumothorax in immunocompetent young adults. The modifications in treatment are predicated on understanding the etiology of spontaneous lung collapse in the patient with AIDS.