Nawal Salahuddin, Saulat Fatimi, Shehzad Huda, Mohammad Islam, Azam Shafquat.
Predicting postoperative Cardiopulmonary complications by a test of stair climbing.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;15(12):761-4.

Objective: To assess whether a test of stair climbing ability could be used to predict the risk of developing postoperative cardiopulmonary complications in patients undergoing general anesthesia. Design: Cohort study. Place and Duration of Study: The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. The duration of the study was from December 2003 to December 2004. Patients and Methods: This study was carried out on consecutive, adult patients presenting for elective thoracic or abdominal surgery under general anesthesia. Pre-operatively, patients were asked to climb a standard staircase. Number of steps climbed was recorded. Those unable to climb stairs due to debilitating cardiac, pulmonary or rheumatologic disease were categorized as 0 stairs climbed. Outcome variables were postoperative cardiopulmonary complications or mortality. Period of follow-up was until hospital discharge. Results: Seventy-eight patients were enrolled; 59 (75.6%) climbed Ž 1 flight of stairs, 19 (24.3%) climbed < 1 flight. Allcause cardiopulmonary complications rate was 26 %. The most frequent complication was lobar atelectasis, followed by bronchospasm and acute MI. The complication rate was 22.8% in those able to climb Ž 1 flight and 40% in those patients who climbed < 1 flight. The group that climbed < 1 flight tended to have complications associated with poor reserves of the cardiopulmonary systems; i.e. pulmonary edema, exacerbation of underlying lung disease. The relative risk of developing complications, if unable to climb at least 1 flight of stairs, was calculated to be 1.8 (95% CI 0.7 - 4.6). Conclusion: Stair climbing can be a useful pre-operative tool to predict the risk of postoperative cardiopulmonary complications.

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