Biomedical Research

Objectives: The cellular immunity was compared between patients who received different types of anesthesia and analgesia after radical resection for lung cancer.

Methods: Forty patients receiving elective thoracotomy for lung cancer were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in Group I received total intravenous anesthesia combined with intravenous analgesia and those in Group II received general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia and post-operative epidural analgesia. The T cell subsets and NK cell functions were compared at different time points of peri-operative period.

Results: The CD8+ cells increased significantly (P<0.01), but the CD3+ cells, CD4+ cells and NK cells decreased significantly after surgery in both groups (P<0.05). The cellular immunity returned to preoperative level at T3 in Group II, but that in Group I was still significantly different from those at T0.

Conclusions: General anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia and post-operative epidural analgesia has little influence on the cellular immune function in patients receiving radical resection for lung cancer and thus patients recover more rapidly.

Author(s): Yuntian Zhu, Ruize Zhang, Jun Fang
Abstract | Full-Text | PDF

Share this