Expiratory Flow Limitation as a Risk Factor for Pulmonary Complications After Major Abdominal Surgery

Postoperative pulmonary complications are major causes of postoperative morbidity and mortality. Although several risk factors have been associated with postoperative pulmonary complications, they are not consistent between studies and, even in those studies in which these factors were identified, the predictive power is low. The hypothesis of this study, built up by Ferrara University Hospital ICU, is that postoperative pulmonary complications would correlate with the presence of intraoperative expiratory flow limitation.

From Pubmed