Postoperative Pulmonary Complications in Major Abdominal Surgery

Incidence of Postoperative Pulmonary Complications (PPCs) varies from 2% to 19%, according to the population under examination and the criteria used to define pulmonary complications. There is no univocal definition of PPCs. Usually physicians associate atelectasis, respiratory insufficiency, pneumonia, bronchospasm, necessity to reintubate. Moreover the evaluation of risk factors has become difficult. The endpoint of this study is to determine the actual incidence of respiratory postoperative complications in patients undergoing general anesthesia for major abdominal surgery (general surgery, gynecology, urology). This is an observational, descriptive, prospective, multicentric study. Investigators are going to enroll all the patients matching the inclusion criteria and follow them until discharge (clinical phase). Then they will be followed up until one year later.