INFANT THORACIC-SURGERY - PROCEDURE-DEPENDENT PULMONARY RESPONSE

Respiratory insufficiency is a common complication of thoracic surgery in infants. To better define this dysfunction, pulmonary compliance ( C-L) and resistance (R) were measured for 17 infants who underwent com mon thoracic procedures: Blalock-Taussig shunting (n = 7) repair of co ngenital coarctation of the aorta (n = 10). Measurements were obtained preoperatively and 0, 1, and 3 days postoperatively. Preoperatively, C-L was lower and R was similar for the two groups. Both groups had de creased C-L and increased R on postoperative day 0: infants with coarc tation had recovery to preoperative values by postoperative day 1 for C-L, and day 3 for R. C-L and R did not return to the preoperative val ues by postoperative day 3 in infants with a shunt procedure. The chan ges in R were greater than those in C-L for both groups in the postope rative period. These data indicate that such thoracic procedures are a ssociated with pulmonary morbidity that is airway-predominant, and tha t the degree of compromise and the time until recovery are, in part, p rocedure-specific. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company