In this large multi-center prospective cohort of patients undergoing inpatient surgery, the risk of pulmonary complications (defined as aspiration, infection, bronchspasm, respiratory failure, pleural effusion, or atelectasis) was predicted by 7 variables: older age, low preop oxygen saturation, respiratory infection within a month, preoperative Hb<10, upper abdominal or thoracic surgery, emergency procedure, or surgery duration >2 hours. Based on these, the patients were categorized as low, intermediate, or high risk, with pulmonary complications occurring in <1%, 9%, and 32% of the groups. These risk factors can be used to predict the risk of pulmonary complications (abstract)
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