SALT LAKE CITY — Risks of surgery complications could increase with poor air quality in the days leading up to a procedure, according to new research involving Utah surgery patients.
Dr. John Pearson, lead study author, University of Utah research associate and Stanford University clinical associate professor, said northern Utah provided a unique backdrop for the study.
“My team was interested in, ‘How do these bad air pollution events we see in Salt Lake City and along the Wasatch Front impact our patients?’” he said. “Part of it was… the unique geography in Utah along the Wasatch Front, where we get both pollution in the winter from inversion events. …Our unique, beautiful mountains also [trap] wildfire smoke in the summertime, and so we have exposures both that are very episodic both in the summer and in the winter.”
Air quality and surgery complications
The team studied nearly 50,000 surgical patients in the region, focusing on air quality conditions in the week before their operations. Just one day of elevated PM2.5 pollution in that seven-day period meant an uptick in the risk of complications after surgery, including pneumonia, sepsis and wound infection…