“Postoperative pulmonary complications are as common as cardiac complications for patients undergoing non-cardiothoracic surgery. Further, these complications
have similar mortality rates and length of stay after elective abdominal surgery or hip fracture repair. This current systematic review synthesizes the evidence on preventive strategies and focuses on atelectasis, pneumonia, and respiratory failure.”

“Recent evidence has shown that postoperative pulmonary and cardiac complications are equally prevalent and clinically important in morbidity, mortality, and length of stay. However, compared with postoperative cardiac complications, much less research on prevention of pulmonary complications has been published. Table 4 (above) summarizes the strength of available evidence, based on our systematic review, on interventions to reduce the risk for postoperative pulmonary complications.”

Lawrence, Valerie A et al. “Strategies to reduce postoperative pulmonary complications after noncardiothoracic surgery: systematic review for the American College of Physicians.” Annals of internal medicine vol. 144,8 (2006): 596-608. Full Text for Emory Users