Lung ultrasound compared with CT chest in diagnosing postoperative pulmonary complications following cardiothoracic surgery

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to compare the detection of postoperative pulmonary complications using lung ultrasound (LUS) versus computed tomography (CT) and assessed the association of risk factors with these complications.

Methodology: This prospective comparative study was conducted in the Critical Care Department at Kasr Alainy Hospital, Cairo University. It included 89 patients over 18 years old who underwent cardiac surgeries and were suspected of developing postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs).

Results: The most frequent final diagnoses on both CT and LUS were unilateral pleural effusion and pneumothorax (20.2% each). LUS detected bilateral pleural effusions more often than CT (7.8% vs. 6.7%), while CT identified unilateral consolidation with subsegmental collapse more frequently than LUS (4.5% vs. 3.4%). Overall, LUS and CT showed 93.3% matching and 6.7% mismatching in detecting PPCs post-cardiothoracic surgery, indicating good compatibility.

Conclusion: LUS is a fast, radiation-free imaging method for real-time evaluation of PPCs after cardiothoracic surgery, making it a valuable tool for postoperative monitoring.

Keywords: Cardiothoracic Surgery; CT Chest; Ultrasound; Postoperative Pulmonary Complications

Citation: Ahmed WO, Nosseir MRZ, Radwan WA, Mohammad MH, Abaas DAA. Lung ultrasound compared with CT chest in diagnosing postoperative pulmonary complications following cardiothoracic surgery. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2025;29(9):1271-78. DOI: 10.35975/apic.v29i9.3064

Received: August 20, 2025; Revised: October 28, 2025; Accepted: October 29, 2025