Adequate pain relief is also necessary

EDITOR,—John C Hall and colleagues draw our attention to some of the ways of preventing postoperative pulmonary complications.1 Pain and trauma of surgical procedures, particularly upper abdominal operations, leads to splinting of the ribs and diaphragm, which in turn leads to further collapse of basal lung units. It has generally been realised that effective analgesia improves patient cooperation during physiotherapy, enabling deeper breathing and better coughing, thus minimising the sputum retention. …