Abstract
In order to predict postoperative pulmonary complications, I studied 47 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent esophagectomy between October 1987 and March 1991, using univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis. Pulmonary complications occurred in 15 patients. Age, vital capacity, forced expiratory volume and serum transferrin were significantly different between the cases with and without pulmonary complications. As a result of multiple logistic regression analysis, vital capacity, percentage of ideal body weight and serum prealbumin were selected as factors of predicting postoperative pulmonary complications. When the decision level was fixed at 0.3, I had an overall prediction rate of 83% (39/47 cases) between October 1987 and March 1991 by retrospective study, and 73% (30/41 cases) between April 1991 and October 1993 by prospective study. It is concluded that predicting pulmonary complications is useful for perioperative management of esophageal cancer surgery.
