Randomised trial of Suction for Primary Pneumothorax Early Resolution (RASPER)

Research summary

Background A pneumothorax occurs when air gets into the space between the lung and the chest wall, usually through a small hole in the lung. This causes the lung to collapse, and can occur “spontaneously”, meaning without an injury to the chest. Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) occurs in young patients without known lung disease. 50% of patients with PSP need to have a tube (or drain) inserted into the chest to remove the air between the lung and chest wall, and admission to hospital. They stay in hospital waiting for the lung to re-inflate for 4 to 8 days. Importance Reducing treatment time is important to patients: interviews and questionnaires conducted with patients have told us that their top priorities are to reduce the amount of time that they have a chest tube, and the length of their hospital stay. In addition, reducing time in hospital safely will be cost saving for the NHS. Aim We aim to understand whether using suction to treat people in hospital with a lung collapse is safe and can shorten the time people need to have a chest tube in place. There have been no large studies conducted to know if using suction is helpful, or if it has risks. Current guidelines provide conflicting advice on the routine use of suction, but despite this, doctors often use it. Design and methods We will recruit 450 patients being treated in hospital with PSP from 36 centres around the UK over 3 years. Patients will be randomly assigned to either have suction applied to their chest tube or treated with usual care (no suction) and followed-up for 6 months in total.

Principal Investigator

Dr Rob Hallifax

Contact us

Email: samantha.chilcott@ndm.ox.ac.uk

IRAS number

316434