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Previous Volume 340:937-944 March 25, 1999 Number 12 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Postoperative pulmonary complications are an important part of the risk of surgery and prolong the hospital stay by an average of one to two weeks.¹ Much of the literature on the assessment of perioperative risk has focused on identifying the now well-defined cardiac risk factors. However, clinically significant postoperative pulmonary complications are as common as postoperative cardiac complications. According to one review, pulmonary complications were at least as common as or more common than cardiac complications in 17 of 25 studies of postoperative complications.² This article reviews patient- and procedure-related risk factors, clinical evaluation, pulmonary-function testing, and risk-reduction strategies. The . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Definition of Postoperative Pulmonary Complications

Patient-Related Risk Factors

Smoking

General Health Status

Age

Obesity

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Asthma

Procedure-Related Risk Factors

Preoperative Clinical Evaluation

Preoperative Pulmonary-Function Testing

Pulmonary-Risk Indexes

Risk-Reduction Strategies

Lung-Expansion Maneuvers

Pain Control

Source Information

From the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Smetana at the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215.

References

Related Letters:

Preoperative Pulmonary Evaluation
Marx J. J., Punjabi N., Schwartz A., Varon J., Marik P., Shulman M. S., Smetana G. W.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1999; 341:613-614, Aug 19, 1999. Correspondence

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