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Evaluation of the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications

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Abstract

Ten of 40 patients who underwent major thoracic or abdominal operations developed postoperative pulmonary complications, consisting of six massive atelectasis, three pneumonias and one edema. They were mostly thoracotomy cases and cigarette smokers. Many of these complications would have been prevented, if reliable pulmonary function tests are available to predict preoperatively such occurrence. Flow-volume curve tracing and closing volume measurement were evaluated in this respect. Both flow at the point of functional residual capacity on flow-volume curve, and the closing capacity subtracted from functional residual capacity were found to be well correlated with the occurrence of postoperative complications and can be used to evaluate the risk of pulmonary complications developing in postoperative period.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Second Department of Surgery, Kyushu University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan

    Takero Yoshida, Yukio Ushijima, Kiyoshi Inokuchi, Takayuki Shirakusa & Naoto Katayama

  2. Research Institute for Chest Diseases, Kyushu Univessity School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan

    Takahito Hirose

Authors
  1. Takero Yoshida
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  2. Yukio Ushijima
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  3. Kiyoshi Inokuchi
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  4. Takahito Hirose
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  5. Takayuki Shirakusa
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  6. Naoto Katayama
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Yoshida, T., Ushijima, Y., Inokuchi, K. et al. Evaluation of the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. The Japanese Journal of Surgery 7, 131–138 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02469343

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02469343

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