Association of preoperative spirometry tests with postoperative pulmonary complications after mediastinal mass resection: protocol for a retrospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION: Patients with a mediastinal mass are at risk of pulmonary complications in the perioperative period. Preoperative spirometry tests are recommended in patients scheduled for thoracic surgery. Our objective is to investigate the association between preoperative spirometry results and the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications in patients following mediastinal mass resection, which may determine the usefulness of spirometry tests in the prediction of the perioperative respiratory risk. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This protocol describes a retrospective cohort study of patients with mediastinal masses in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital between 1 September 2021 and 1 September 2022, with a planned sample size of 660 patients. The primary aim of this study is to explore the association between preoperative spirometry results and the occurrence of postoperative pulmonary complications after mediastinal mass resection. Logistic regression analysis will be used to calculate the adjusted incidence rate difference and incidence rate ratios (with 95% CIs). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by the ethics committee of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital (K21-372Y). The results of the study will be submitted to a peer-reviewed biomedical journal for publication and presented at relevant conferences.