Incidence of Intraoperative Atelectasis Following Laparoscopic Surgery Performed in Lateral Position

Abstract

  Patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery in the lateral position have increased risk of developing gravity-dependent atelectasis. To assess the incidence of intraoperative atelectasis and postoperative hypoxia, we retrospectively compared the chest x-ray taken immediately after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (the supine group) and laparoscopic radical nephrectomy/adrenalectomy (the lateral group), and the chest x-ray taken on postoperative day 1. The lateral group had significantly increased incidence of intraoperative atelectasis compared with the supine group (14/21 versus 1/25, p<0.0001). Fifty percent of intraoperative atelectasis remained unchanged on post-operative day 1. No pre-existing risk factor other than lateral position was evidently associated with the occurrence of intra-operative atelectasis. These results suggested that intraoperative atelectasis could lead to postoperative atelectasis.