Preoperative Lung Fitness for Cancer & Other Surgeries

Preoperative lung fitness assessment is a crucial evaluation done before major surgeries, especially for lung cancer, abdominal, or heart surgeries, to check if your lungs are healthy and strong enough to handle the stress of surgery and anesthesia.

This assessment helps doctors:

• Understand your baseline lung function
• Predict the risk of complications like breathing difficulty or lung infections after surgery
• Plan safely tailored treatment, including the type of surgery or need for prehabilitation and postoperative care

What Does It Include?

• Spirometry: To measure how well you can breathe in and out
• DLCO test: To check how efficiently your lungs exchange oxygen
• 6-Minute Walk Test: To evaluate your exercise tolerance
• Arterial Blood Gas (ABG): To measure oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in your blood
• Chest Imaging (X-ray or CT Scan): To assess the lung structure

Why It Matters:

• Ensures safe surgery outcomes
• Reduces the chance of post-operative respiratory complications
• Helps guide decisions like lung resection, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy in cancer patients
• May lead to prehabilitation: breathing exercises and medication adjustments to improve lung fitness before surgery