Perioperative medicine & outcomes
The Air-Test score for prediction of postoperative pulmonary complications after general anaesthesia: analysis of harmonised trial data and a prospective observational cohort
Authors' conclusion
The Air-Test is a simple noninvasive bedside score with a good performance in identifying patients after major surgery who will not develop severe PPCs.
Study context
- Population
- Surgical patients undergoing GA3 multicentre RCTs and a prospective observational study
- Participants
- 3,268 patients
- Comparison
- Positive vs negative Air-Test for prediction of severe postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs)
- Trainingn = 2,288
- Validationn = 980
- Primary endpoint
- Composite of severe PPCs
- Follow-up
- First 7 postoperative days
Methodological detailsdiagnostic/prognostic accuracy, random split into training and validation cohorts
- Diagnostic/prognostic accuracy
- Random split into training and validation cohorts
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Severe PPCs, positive vs negative Air-Test · 7 days
Odds ratio (95% CI)P value
Positive Air-Test (Training) vs Negative Air-Test
1.85(1.21–3.15)
P = 0.007Positive Air-Test (Validation) vs Negative Air-Test
2.27(1.27–4.61)
P = 0.011- AUC for detecting PPCs, similar in both cohorts (printed as OR)
- 0.57 (95% CI 0.50-0.64)
- Sensitivity, each cohort
- 53-54%
- Specificity, each cohort
- 59-60%
- PPV, each cohort
- 6-8%
- NPV, each cohort
- 95-96%
Further findings
Incidence of severe PPCs within 7 days (all participants)
- Severe PPCs
- 164/3268 (5.0%)
Original publication
The Air-Test score for prediction of postoperative pulmonary complications after general anaesthesia: analysis of harmonised trial data and a prospective observational cohort. Br J Anaesth. Published 17 December 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →