Pneumothorax is the most frequent complication of TS. CS is the main and undesirable side effect, appears with the passage of time, and is not related to the extension of TS. Being female is the only predictor factor of suffering CS. Plantar hyperhidrosis improves initially, although tends to reappear. Excessive dryness appears in extensive TS and does not improve over time. Postoperative satisfaction degree is high but decreases over time owing to the appearance of recurrence. Effectiveness and the absence of CS determine an excellent quality of life. Six percent of the patients regret the surgery because of severe CS. Informing patients of possible side effects before TS is essential.

SP is an entity that evolves correctly without treatment and has no long-term relapses. Once other occasionally associated entities are ruled out, outpatient management can be employed.

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Surgery for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) has passed through various stages throughout history, having been the treatment of choice in the past. It has now been relegated to second place for treatment of this disease. One of the most strongly debated surgical indications has been clinical picture of multidrug resistance with the focus of pulmonary tuberculous activity located in a segment, lobe, or lung. In these cases some authors have described good results with surgical excision. Another important indication is the complications of PTB, among which bronchiectases (provoking pictures of suppuration, superinfections, or hemoptysis) are found, along with known destructive pulmonary sequelae such as destroyed lung, massive hemoptysis, and the presence of a bronchopleural fistula that cannot be resolved with pleural drainage. The presence of a neoplasm in a patient affected by PTB is a surgical indication if the lesion is resectable. The existence of an unidentifiable pulmonary mass or node is a surgical criterion because it might signal bronchogenic carcinoma. A frequent indication for surgery is pulmonary aspergilloma, which in a large percentage of cases is a destructive PTB sequela and generates serious complications, hemoptysis being the most frequent. Mediastinal tuberculous lymphadenitis that produces compressive symptoms and pulmonary complications, especially in children, is another surgical indication for decompressing the bronchial tree. The surgery in these cases consists in excision and curettage of adenopathies. Surgery therefore now constitutes a valid option for the treatment of certain clinical pictures of PTB that do not respond to medical treatment, are serious, and are potentially fatal.

The first episode of lung surgery for pulmonary metastases of CRC was associated with very low mortality and reoperation rates (<1%). The postoperative morbidity rate was 16%. Independent risk factors of postoperative morbidity were major lung resection and respiratory and/or cardiovascular co-morbidity. Video-assisted surgery showed a protective effect.

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Soft tissue tumors of the chest wall are rare. Between 1998 and 2007 we treated eight cases of elastofibroma of the thoracic wall, an infrequent primary tumor of the chest. Seven females and one male between 44 and 62 years presented with dorsal subscapular tumors of months and even years of evolution. One case was a relapse from previous interventions and in three cases the tumor was bilateral. A surgical excision was performed in all cases, confirming the source of the tumor. There were no postoperative complications or relapses. We concluded that elastofibroma is a tumor that appears most frequently in middle aged women, and that diagnosis can be established through the use of imaging and fine needle aspiration biopsy. Given its benign character and slow growth, in cases where it is asymptomatic, its evolution can be controlled without surgical intervention.