Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Non-drug perioperative interventions to reduce postoperative pulmonary complications after abdominal surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors' conclusion
This synthesis establishes an evidence hierarchy for PPC prevention in abdominal surgery. Low FiO2 is the only intervention supported by high certainty evidence
Study context
- Population
- Adults undergoing elective abdominal surgery under GA
- Participants
- 55,260 adults · 255 trials
- Comparison
- Perioperative non-drug interventions vs control for PPC prevention
- Outcome
- Proportion of patients developing PPCs
Methodological detailstrial sequential analysis, Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE)
- Trial sequential analysis
- GRADE
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
PPCs
Relative risk (95% CI)
Low FiO2high certainty evidence
0.81(0.71–0.92)
Lung protective ventilationmoderate certainty
0.66(0.57–0.76)
Physiotherapymoderate certainty
0.55(0.46–0.65)
Analgesiamoderate certainty
0.73(0.64–0.84)
Nutritionmoderate certainty
0.74(0.63–0.87)
- Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) across all included trials
- 6467 (11.7%)
Original publication
Non-drug perioperative interventions to reduce postoperative pulmonary complications after abdominal surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. Published 9 April 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →