Surgical management of catamenial pneumothorax: a systematic review

Background Catamenial pneumothorax is a rare manifestation of thoracic endometriosis syndrome and is associated with a high risk of recurrence despite surgical intervention. Increasingly, multimodal strategies combining thoracic surgery with adjunctive hormonal therapy have been put in place as standard practice however, optimal management remains uncertain.

A systematic review of the literature was conducted using MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, CENTRAL, Google Scholar, SciSpace, and the Cochrane Library for studies published between January 2000 and December 2025. Studies reporting outcomes of surgical management for catamenial pneumothorax were included. Data was extracted on patient characteristics, surgical techniques (diaphragmatic and pleural interventions), use of postoperative hormonal therapy, and recurrence rates.

Analysis of 37 studies encompassing over 1,800 patients suggests that treatment approach is a major determinant of outcomes. Meta-analysis demonstrates a pooled recurrence rate of 17.3% with postoperative hormonal therapy compared to 54.2% without (p < 0.01) [1], with younger age independently associated with higher recurrence risk. Diaphragmatic intervention is critical to reducing recurrence, with studies reporting 12.5% recurrence when diaphragmatic surgery is combined with pleurodesis versus 100% with pleurodesis alone [15]. Diaphragm resection has been identified as an independent protective factor against recurrence (HR 0.16; 95% CI: 0.03–0.77; p = 0.022) [5].

The available evidence supports a multimodal approach to the management of catamenial pneumothorax. Comprehensive thoracoscopic surgery addressing diaphragmatic pathology, combined with pleurodesis and postoperative hormonal therapy, is consistently associated with reduced recurrence. Given the observational nature of the available data, these findings should be interpreted with appropriate caution and highlight the need for prospective, collaborative studies. Similar content being viewed by others Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Rights and permissions Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. About this article Cite this article Mekhail, A., Kilby, J., Macalister, S. et al. Surgical management of catamenial pneumothorax: a systematic review. J Cardiothorac Surg (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-026-04227-1 Received: Accepted: Published: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-026-04227-1