Pulmonary function before and after abdominal surgery in the aged

In patients 70 years or older, pulmonary function tests were performed before and after abdominal surgery to correlated the results with the development of postoperative pulmonary complications which developed in 48% of these patients, compared to 15% in the control group. To predict the development of PPC, preoperative analysis of the flow-volume curve is useful and vital capacity is a valuable parameter for the analysis of the flow-volume curve. Postoperatively, pulmonary function was reduced and there was a delay in the restoration of pulmonary function in cases with postoperative pulmonary complications. The administration of appropriate analgesics may be useful to improve postoperative ventilatory disturbances.