title: Postoperative pulmonary complications: an update on risk assessment and reduction.
abstract: Postoperative pulmonary complications are common, serious, and expensive. Important predictors of risk are advanced age, poor health as assessed by American Society of Anesthesiologists class, and surgery near the diaphragm. Effective strategies to reduce risk include postoperative lung expansion techniques, preoperative intensive inspiratory muscle training, postoperative thoracic epidural analgesia, selective rather than routine use of nasogastric tubes, and laparoscopic rather than open bariatric surgery.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA. gsmetana@bidmc.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Gerald W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Smetana
mesh_terms: D016001:Confidence Intervals; D045422:Continuous Positive Airway Pressure; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D018570:Risk Assessment; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control