Impact of drug addiction on the outcome of pneumothorax

Introduction: Drug addiction includes several type of substances. Its influence on respiratory diseases is not well khnown. Aim: To compare prognosis of pneumothorax among people with drug addiction versus patients without this habbit. Method: A retrospective and comparative study was carried out in the pulmonary disease department of Charles Nicolle hospital in Tunisia from January 2019 to January 2022. Adult patients with diagnosis of pneumothorax were included. Two groups were identified : G1: 14 patients with drug addiction and G2 : 34 patients with no drug addiction. Results: We included 48 patients (47 men and one woman). G1 patients were younger with no difference (33 ± 10 years vs 39 ± 16 years, p=0.2). Tabacco smoking and comorbidities didn’t differ betwen the two groups. Pneumothorax was spontaneous in all patients of G1 and 85% in G2 (p=0.30). Clinical and radiological presentation of pneumothorax didn’t differ between G1 and G2 (p>0.05). All patients had chest drainage. Incidents such as subcutaneous emphsema were more frequent in G1 (p=0.008). Thoracic surgery was necesary in 4 cases G1 vs 6 cases G2 (p=0.4). Inhospital stay was longer in G1 (15±10 days vs 8±4 days, p=0.03) and complications (persistent pneumothorax, hemopneumothorax and pyopneumothorax) were more commun in G1 (p=0.02). The follow-up time after discharge was shorter in G1 (p=0.028) and reccurence episode of pneumothorax didn’t differ between the 2 groups (p=0.5). Conclusion: This study showed that drug addict patients with pneumothorax are at high risk of inhospital complications.