Effect of the alveolar recruitment maneuver during laparoscopic colorectal surgery on postoperative pulmonary complications: A randomized controlled trial.

Intraoperative lung-protective ventilation, including low tidal volume and positive end-expiratory pressure, reduces postoperative pulmonary complications. However, the effect and specific alveolar recruitment maneuver method are controversial. We investigated whether the intraoperative intermittent recruitment maneuver further reduced postoperative pulmonary complications while using a lung-protective ventilation strategy. Adult patients undergoing elective laparoscopic colorectal surgery were randomly allocated to the recruitment or control groups. Intraoperative ventilation was adjusted to maintain a tidal volume of 6-8 mL kg-1 and positive end-expiratory pressure of 5 cmH2O in both groups. The alveolar recruitment maneuver was applied at three time points (at the start and end of the pneumoperitoneum, and immediately before extubation) by maintaining a continuous pressure of 30 cmH2O for 30 s in the recruitment group. Clinical and radiological evidence of postoperative pulmonary complications was investigated within 7 days postoperatively. A total of 125 patients were included in the analysis. The overall incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications was not significantly different between the recruitment and control groups (28.1% vs. 31.1%, P = 0.711), while the mean ± standard deviation intraoperative peak inspiratory pressure was significantly lower in the recruitment group (10.7 ± 3.2 vs. 13.5 ± 3.0 cmH2O at the time of CO2 gas-out, P