Annals of surgery
-
Pulmonary complications remain the most important cause of postoperative morbidity and mortality. The many advances of modern surgical care over the last 30 years have not appreciably altered the incidence of these complications. Many risk factors have been shown to contribute to this problem, but no studies have examined the impact of preoperative protein depletion on respiratory function and related this to the development of postoperative pulmonary complications. 80 patients (42 men, 38 women, median age of 64 years, with a range of 15-91 years) awaiting major elective gastrointestinal (G. ⋯ There was a significant difference between these two categories of patients in regard to respiratory muscle strength (p less than .025), vital capacity (p less than .05), and peak expiratory flow rate (p less than .005). Pneumonia developed in a significantly higher proportion of protein-depleted patients with atelectasis (p less than .05), and their stay in the hospital after surgery was longer (p less than .05). These data show that protein depletion is associated with an impairment of respiratory function, and is in itself a significant risk factor in the development of postoperative pneumonia.
-
Thin melanomas can metastasize and be lethal. The purpose of this review was to identify negative risk factors in patients with melanomas less than 0.76 mm thick. Six hundred and eighty-one (681) such patients are reviewed in this study. ⋯ Patients with either (1) both clinical risk factors or (2) one clinical risk factor and one histologic risk factor were identified as high-risk patients. Their actuarial risk of metastasis was 11% at 5 years and 22% at 10 years (p = 0.0084). Identifying high-risk and low-risk patients with thin melanomas may improve guidelines for the application of adjuvant therapies to this population.