Incidence and factors associated with postoperative pulmonary complication in adult patients underwent thoracic and upper abdominal surgery in Northwest Ethiopia, 2022

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%