Preoperative Vitamin D levels and respiratory complications of general anesthesia

This research aims to investigate whether there is a correlation between the respiratory complications occurring in patients under general anesthesia and preoperative Vitamin D levels.

The study was a prospective observational study.

This study included 95 adult cases. The cases had total 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels identified in blood samples before the operation. Patients given routine general anesthesia and were assessed in terms of respiratory complications during anesthesia induction, extubation, anesthesia recovery, and the first 24-h postoperative.

The Shapiro-Wilk test, Student's-t-test, one-way ANOVA test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Chi-square tests were used.

The mean 25OHD vitamin level identified in the preoperative period was 13.00 ± 6.57 ng/mL, with 25OHD vitamin levels found to be significantly low in female cases compared to male cases (P < 0.05). There was a statistically significant negative relationship between age and 25OHD vitamin levels identified (P = 0.045). When assessed in terms of surgery types, there was no significant difference found in Vitamin D levels in terms of surgery type. When examined for complications in the induction, extubation period, and postoperative recovery period, there was a significant difference identified between 25OHD vitamin levels and these complications (P < 0.01).

This research observed that patients with low preoperative 25OHD vitamin levels encountered respiratory complications related to general anesthesia more often. Especially, in the early postoperative period, there is a very significant difference between complications and low 25OHD vitamin levels.