• Kun Zhou, Yanming Wu, Jianhua Su, Yutian Lai, Cheng Shen, Pengfei Li, and Guowei Che.
• Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
• Zhongguo Fei Ai Za Zhi. 2017 Sep 20; 20 (9): 603-609.

BackgroundPostoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs), especially postoperative pneumonia (POP), directly affect the rapid recovery of lung cancer patients after surgery. Peak expiratory flow (PEF) can reflect airway patency and cough efficiency. Moreover, cough impairment may lead to accumulation of pulmonary secretions which can increase the risk of PPCs. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of preoperative PEF on PPCs in patients with lung cancer.MethodsRetrospective research was conducted on 433 lung cancer patients who underwent lobectomy at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 2014 to December 2015. The associations between preoperative PEF and PPCs were analyzed based on patients' basic characteristics and clinical data in hospital.ResultsPreoperative PEF value in PPCs group (280.93±88.99) L/min was significantly lower than that in non-PPCs group (358.38±93.69) L/min (P<0.001). According to the binary logistics regression analysis, PEF and operative time were independent risk factors for PPCs. Further, ROC curve showed that PEF=320 L/min was the cut-off value for predicting the occurrence of PPCs (AUC=0.706, 95%CI: 0.661-0.749). The incidence of PPCs in PEF≤320 L/min group (26.6%) was significantly higher than that in PEF>320 L/min group (9.4%)(P<0.001).ConclusionsPreoperative PEF and PPCs are correlated, and PEF may be used as a predictor of PPCs.

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