Forty patients with spontaneous pneumothorax underwent vertical axillarty thoracotomy for surgical bullectomy of spontaneous pneumothorax between June, 1991 and september, 1992. We evaluated the method in terms of postoperative pain, wound complication, days of hospital stay and cosmetic result. It`s concludid that verical axillary thoracotomy provides satisfactory exposure for limited procedures within the thoracic cavity and offers the specific advantages of minimal and cosmetically acceptable results when compared with the thoracotomy methods.