Objectives:
Echinococcosis is a biological, medical, economic and social issue of great importance. This study was undertaken because differing opinions have been expressed about the most successful method of surgical treatment of pulmonary echinococcal cysts.

Methods:
The medical records of 181 patients with pulmonary hydatidosis treated in University Hospital of Lung Diseases were investigated retrospectively, of which 145 (80.1%) were treated surgically and the others conservatively. Of the patients, 93 (51.4%) were male and 88 (48.6%) were females, with a mean age of 40 years (range 12-80 years). In 31.1% of cases, the cysts were intact and in 68.9% complicated. The data were analyzed statistically using the Anova and Chi- square tests.

Results:
Only a few of the cases treated surgically had complications (34.8%), mainly air leakage (>7 days), but there were no fatalities. The mean number of days of postoperative hospitalization for all the surgical cases was 12.8±3.73. The mean number days of postoperative hospitalization for cases where capitonnage was applied was 11.38 ± 4.6 and the duration of air leak was 4.51±2.89 days. There was no statisticially significant association between surgical method and postoperative hospitalization.

Conclusions:
We concluded that the use of capitonnage offered no advantage concerning the days of hospitalization, and that its application is not the best choice in the surgical treatment of pulmonary echinococcosis. We also concluded that as complicated hydatid cysts prolong the hospitalization of the patients, it is better to treat them surgically at an early stage.