Respiratory assessment of smoking patients submitted to thoracoabdominal surgical procedures

The aim of this study was to identify the main clinical changes related to respiratory function in smokers submitted to thoracoabdominal surgical procedures. It is a descriptive study with a cross-sectional design and quantitative approach performed with 185 patients. The results obtained showed a predominance of males (87.0%) with a mean age of 34.97 years, brown skin (59.2%), single individuals (49.7%), and incomplete primary education (57.8%). The most frequent surgery was exploratory laparotomy (65.5%) followed by chest drainage (32.7%) and the most prevalent type of anesthesia was the local one (59.3%). Among the most frequent clinical manifestations were: tachypnea (45.3%), accessory muscle use (43.0%), hypoxemia (35.5%) and dyspnea (28.2%). It was also verified that approximately 43.2% of the sample evaluated presented cough, which was associated with the presence of pain (59.8%) and 28.3% of the patients had signs of secretion in the airways. As for pulmonary auscultation, adventitious noise was identified in 41.5% of the sample, with the most frequent type being wheezing sounds (33.5%); 53.0% of the patients presented decreased respiratory sounds. The results led to the conclusion that the main respiratory complications found in smokers after surgery were tachypnea, hypoxemia, dyspnea, accessory muscle use, adventitious sounds and diminished respiratory sounds.