Effect of perioperative systemic steroid treatment on patients with obstructive lung disease undergoing elective...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is an independent risk factor of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs). It is unknown whether a perioperative systemic corticosteroid would be beneficial in patients with obstructive airway disease.

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of a perioperative systemic corticosteroid on PPCs in patients who showed airway obstruction in preoperative spirometry.

Retrospective medical record reviews were performed on records from January 2010 to December 2011 in a referral hospital. We analyzed the data of patients who were referred to pulmonologists before elective abdominal surgery and had a prebronchodilator FEV1/FVC of <70%. We compared the PPCs between the steroid group and the non-steroid group.

A total of 270 patients were referred to pulmonologists and, of these, 86 had a FEV1/FVC of <70% in the preoperative spirometry. In the 30 patients in the steroid group, the mean FEV1 was 52.2% and half of these had previously used a bronchodilator. Use of a perioperative systemic corticosteroid was significantly associated with reduced incidence of PPCs in the multivariate logistic regression with adjustment by propensity score (adjusted odds ratio = 0.036, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.003-0.505; P = 0.014).

In our retrospective study we showed that those treated with steroids had better outcomes. However, future prospective and randomized controlled trials are needed.