The short answer to the question is that a Pneumothorax is a collapsed lung. Should you worry about it? That depends upon several different factors, but if you have COPD you probably have some risk for a pneumothorax. The most common symptoms are shortness of breath and pain in the chest.
I have had 3. The firs one I had the symptoms listed above. The second one came with shortness of breath, and the third one was nearly symptom free. I did have more shortness of breath and my oxygen saturation kept going down.
I have 3 lovely scars in my left side where the chest tubes were placed. I will tell you that they are no fun to have, but I won’t scare you with the details.
As usual LP medical has a very good blog about the subject.
https://blog.lptmedical.com/pneumothorax-a-potentially-serious-complication-for-copd-patientshttps://blog.lptmedical.com/pneumothorax-a-potentially-serious-complication-for-copd-patients