Is chest tube capnography effective in differentiating between true and false air leaks after minimally invasive thoracic surgery?

Air leak (AL) is the most frequent adverse event after thoracic surgery. When AL occurs, the concentration of the principal gas in the pleural space should be similar to that of air exhaled. Accordingly, we tried to develop a new method to identify AL by analyzing pCO2 levels in the air flow from the chest drainage using capnography. This is a prospective observational study of 104 patients who underwent VATS surgery between January 2020 and July 2021. Digital drainage systems were used to detect AL. Eighty-two patients (79