The incidences of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) are higher in patients with asymptomatic airflow limitation (AFL) than the general population. An ambispective cohort study conducted at the Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, China, found that the prevalence of PPCs, ICU admissions, tracheal intubation and 90-day hospital readmissions secondary to PPCs remained significantly higher in patients with newly diagnosed airflow limitation. The researchers said that they analysed a 535 people cohort from the medical records of asymptomatic patients undergoing lung surgeries who were spirometrically diagnosed with AFL between January and October 2017. The study found that 126 subjects in the cohort had AFL, and that the AFL group had almost twice the risk of pulmonary complications (28.6% v/s 14.4%) and ICU admissions (P < 0.001).