• Ivete Alonso Bredda Saad, Eduardo Mello De Capitani, Ivan Felizardo Contrera Toro, and Lair Zambon.
• Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. fisioterapia@hc.unicamp.br
• Sao Paulo Med J. 2003 May 5; 121 (3): 107-10.

ContextPulmonary complications are the most common forms of postoperative morbidity in thoracic surgery, especially atelectasis and pneumonia. The first step in avoiding these complications during the postoperative period is to detect the patients that may develop them.ObjectiveTo identify risk variables leading to early postoperative pulmonary complications in thoracic surgery.DesignProspective study.SettingHospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas.Patients145 patients submitted to elective surgery were classified as low, moderate and high risk for postoperative pulmonary complications using a risk assessment scale.ProceduresThe patients were followed up for 72 hours after the operation. Postoperative pulmonary complications were defined as atelectasis, pneumonia, tracheobronchitis, wheezing, prolonged intubation and/or prolonged mechanical ventilation.Main MeasurementsUnivariate analysis was applied in order to study these independent variables: age, nutritional status, body mass index, respiratory disease, smoking habit, spirometry and surgery duration. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed in order to evaluate the relationship between independent and dependent variables.ResultsThe incidence of postoperative complications was 18.6%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the variables increasing the chances of postoperative pulmonary complications were wheezing (odds ratio, OR = 6.2), body mass index (OR = 1.15), smoking (OR = 1.04) and surgery duration (OR = 1.007).ConclusionWheezing, body mass index, smoking and surgery duration increase the chances of postoperative pulmonary complications in thoracic surgery

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