30 Jan 2020

Non-intervention best treatment for collapsed lungs - research

From Checkpoint, 5:40 pm on 30 January 2020

New research from NZ doctors could save people all over the world from painful and unnecessary treatment for collapsed lungs.

The standard treatment for the condition has been to insert a plastic tube to drain air that's leaked from the lung into the chest.

But the joint New Zealand and Australian study, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, has found it's better to do nothing at all.

RNZ health correspondent Rowan Quinn reports.