Postoperative pulmonary complications after gynecologic surgery

Objective: Investigate the frequency of, and risks for postoperative pulmonary complications after surgery for non-malignant gynecologic disorders. Method: A retrospective component included medical record data for one year. A prospective component enrolled 300 patients consecutively who were scheduled for gynecologic surgeries. Result: Postoperative pulmonary complications occurred in 1.22% of 328 open abdominal procedures in the retrospective study, and 2.16% of 232 in the prospective study. Pooling the data yielded a frequency estimate of 1.61%. Mean hospital length of stay (pooled data) increased 1.75 days in those with postoperative pulmonary complications. Smoking was the only significant risk factor (relative risk = 3.9 using pooled data). Conclusion: Postoperative pulmonary complications after surgery for non-malignant gynecologic disorders are infrequent but increase hospital length of stay. Smokers are at increased risk. (c) 2006 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.