Consensus Statements on Definition, Components and Grading of Postoperative Pulmonary Complications

This Delphi study involves multiple iterative rounds until a stable consensus or dissensus is reached on all the statements.

"Structured interviews will be conducted by members of the steering committee and an independent qualitative research expert. A pilot-tested case vignette along with a Likert scale-based questionnaire, will be employed to gather insights regarding the impact and severity of PPCs. The impact of the individual components of PPCs will be evaluated on a 7-point Global Rate of Change (GRC) scale (from very much worse to very much better) to calculate the minimal clinical important difference. Patient care representatives will be engaged in anonymous voting on the questionnaire. PPCs' rankings and key themes synthesised from the interviews will be shared with the panel in the second Delphi round, facilitating the integration of patient perspectives into the consensus process."