Salling et al reported a modification of the Postoperative Pulmonary Complication (PPC) risk prediction score for patients who have undergone cardiothoracic or abdominal surgery. This can aid decision making by physiotherapists. The authors are from Aarhus University in Denmark.
Patient selection: status post cardiothoracic or abdominal surgery
Parameters:
(1) FEV1 as percent of predicted (as measure of reduced lung function)
(2) unintended weight loss over the past 3 months in kilograms
(3) sternotomy incision
(4) thoraco-abdominal incision (based on Table 2, interpreted as incision into both areas)
Parameter
Finding
Points
FEV1 as percent of predicted
>= 75%
0
50.1 to 74.9%
4
<= 50%
0
unintended weight loss
<= 10 kg
0
> 10 kg
4
sternotomy
no
0
yes
8
thoraco-abdominal incision
no
0
yes
11
total score =
= SUM(points for all of the parameters)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 27
Total Score
Risk Category
< 8
low to moderate
>= 8
high
Performance:
• The area under the ROC curve is 0.62, which is suboptimum.
• At a cutoff of 8 the sensitivity was 0.49 and the specificity was 0.70.
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