Abstract:
Abstract
Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC) are the major causes of morbidity
and mortality, specifically within the first postoperative week. Thoracic and upper abdominal
surgeries are the most routinely performed procedures for the treatment of many diseases. The
overall incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications varies due to the type of pulmonary
complications studied, the clinical criteria used in the definition and the type of surgery.
Objective: To assess the incidence and factors associated with postoperative pulmonary
complication in adult patients underwent thoracic and upper abdominal surgery in Northwest,
Ethiopia, 2022.
Methods: A prospective multicenter follow up study was conducted from April 01, 2022 to June
30, 2022 in comprehensive and specialized hospitals in Northwest Ethiopia, after approval by the
ethical committee. The data were collected from 424 patients consecutively with a response rate of
100% via interviews and the patient’s medical records. It was analyzed by SPSS version 26. Both crosstabs and binary logistic regression analysis were used to assess the strength of association. Both
Crude Odds Ratio (COR) and Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with the corresponding 95%
confidence interval were calculated. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Result: The finding of the present study revealed that the incidence of postoperative pulmonary
complication was 24.5%. Emergency patients (AOR=2.508, 95%CI: 1.295-4.857), preoperative
SpO2 <94 (AOR=3.804, 95%CI: 1.659-8.719), duration of surgery >2hr (AOR=2.451, 95%CI:
1.057-5.683), patients having a nasogastric tube (AOR=2.878, 95%CI: 1.518-5.458),
intraoperative blood loss>500ml (AOR=2.614, 95%CI: 1.384-4.936) and post-operative
albumin<3.5g/dl (AOR=6.211, 95%CI: 3.382-11.406) were factors associated with pulmonary
complications. The common complications were pneumonia 42(9.9%) and respiratory
infection18 (4.2%
