Assessment Finding: Identify Common Complications of Thoracotomy and The Role of Anesthesia in Iraq

Background: Thoracotomy is still a significant surgical operation that is accompanied by a considerable amount of morbidity following the surgery. The patients were classified according to the method of anaesthesia: general anaesthesia (GA) alone (n=42), general anaesthesia with thoracic epidural (n=52), and paravertebral block (n=22). The main outcome measures were the postoperative complications, pain measurement, and the length of stay. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyse the risk factors. Correlation analysis was used to test correlations between continuous variables. Findings refer to the average age was 58.4 years, and 67.2% of the patients were men. The total complication was 50.0% (58/116). The most frequent complications were pulmonary (36.2%), which included atelectasis (24.1%), pneumonia (15.5%), and prolonged air leak (13.8%). Patients experienced cardiovascular complications in 22.4% of the cases; arrhythmias (15.5%). The pain (VAS>7) was severe in the epidural group in the GA alone (15.4% vs. 47.6%, p