Postoperative ventilatory performance: dependence upon surgical incision.

Sixty-one patients undergoing elective surgery were evaluated in regard to the degree of depression in FVC and FEV1 that occurred in the postoperative period. Following a thoracotomy a reduction of about 75 per cent occurred, after a long midline incision 68 per cent, after an upper midline or paramedian incision 61 per cent, after a subcostal incision 53 per cent and after a lower midline incision 38 per cent. This information may be useful in determining which patients are at an increased risk for postoperative respiratory insufficiency.