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Pulmonary Complications, Ventilation and Blood Gases after Upper Abdominal Surgery
Author(s) -
Hansen G.,
Drabløs P. A.,
Steinert R.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1977.tb01211.x
Subject(s) - medicine , abdominal surgery , anesthesia , ventilation (architecture) , abdomen surgery , blood gas analysis , intensive care medicine , surgery , mechanical engineering , engineering
Forty patients who underwent elective cholecystectomy were examined preoperatively and during the first postoperative week by physical examination, measurement of FVC and FEV 1 , arterial pH and blood gas analyses, and chest x‐ray. Postoperative pulmonary complications (p.p.c.) were detected in 30 (75%) of the patients. Simple auscultation was the most sensitive tool in discovering p.p.c., but 18 of the 30 patients with complications also had a pathological chest x‐ray. Obesity, smoking, postoperative naso‐gastric tube and postoperative wound infection were predisposing factors for p.p.c. Six patients with preoperative pulmonary disease all had a progress in their lung pathology. There was no definite relationship of duration of anaesthesia or drainage of the abdominal wound to development of p.p.c. The patients with p.p.c. showed a deeper and more prolonged fall in Pa o2 postoperatively than the normal group. None of the normals showed an arterial P o2 below 70 mmHg in the postoperative course, while 63% of the p.p.c. group did. FVC and FEV 1 showed marked reductions from preoperative values on the first postoperative day, and then gradually increased to near preoperative values after 1 week. Arterial pH and P co2 , showed no definite changes during the postoperative course.