The Relationship of Preoperative Parameters with the Risk of Postoperative Pulmonary Complication in Upper Abdominal Surgery The pulmonary complications in upper abdominal surgery continue to be an important cause of postoperative morbidity and mortality. We evaluated records of 158 patients (M/F:85/73, mean age 60.9± 13.4 years) in 1998 who underwent upper abdominal surgery in order to investigate preoperative risk factors associated with postoperative pulmonary complications. We compared the smoking habbit, existance of previous pulmonary disease, respiratory symptoms and findings, chest radiograph, pulmonary function test, body mass index, cardiac risk factors, ASA classification and the presence of postoperative pulmonary complications in all patients. One hundred twenty-one patients (76.6%) underwent laparotomic and 37 patients (23.4%) laparoscopic surgery. The duration of ICU stay was longer than 48 hours in 28 of 158 patients. Postoperative pulmonary complications were detected in 19 patients (12.0%). Non-pulmonary complications have occured in 16 patients (10.1%) and half of them was surgical complications. Postoperative pulmonary complications were detected in higher percentage in patients who had lower preoperative FVC and FEV1 levels (p<0.01, p<0.05), who were undergoing laparotomic surgery (p<0.05), who remained in ICU longer than 48 hours (p<0.01) and who had non-pulmonary complications (p<0.05). We conclude that pulmonary function test is important in preoperative pulmonary evaluation.