Wedge Resection or Parietal Pleurectomy for the Treatment of Recurrent Pneumothorax (WOPP)

The trial will be conducted at the major thoracic surgery units in Germany. Each centre can include patients on the basis of the presence of a PSP and the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After informed consent has been obtained from the study participants, each has to fill out the standardized short-form health survey (SF-36) questionnaire and the visual analogue scale (VAS) to determine baseline parameters for the (current) state of health and pain level.Randomization into the two interventional groups is carried out before surgery. Patients are operated according to good clinical practice either by pleurectomy alone (PP) or total parietal pleurectomy with apical wedge resection of the pulmonary apex (WRPP). Procedure related parameters (like operation time, applied suture materials including staplers) are documented. The postoperative care is subject to each participating centre's standards. The postoperative course is evaluated (mortality, morbidity, duration of tube drainage, re-interventions or operations, length of stay, need for blood substitutions). To evaluate the long term effect of the surgical intervention, all study participants are followed for 2 years.