• Hao Zhang, Mengdi Qu, Kefang Guo, Yanghanzhao Wang, Jiahui Gu, Han Wu, Xuqin Zhu, Zhirong Sun, Juan P Cata, Wankun Chen, and Changhong Miao.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Perioperative Stress and Protection, Shanghai, China.
• Br J Anaesth. 2022 Aug 1; 129 (2): 244253244-253.

BackgroundIntravenous lidocaine has been postulated to improve long-term survival after surgery for pancreatic cancer through anti-inflammatory effects, anti-tumour effects, or both. We investigated whether intraoperative lidocaine improves survival after pancreatectomy for pancreatic cancer and whether lidocaine modified the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), high levels of which are associated with poor prognosis.MethodsPatients undergoing pancreatectomy were randomly assigned to i.v. lidocaine (continuous intraoperative infusion of 2 mg kg-1 h-1, after 1.5 mg kg-1 bolus at induction of anaesthesia) or saline placebo. The co-primary outcomes were survival/disease-free survival 3 yr after surgery. Secondary outcomes (masked to treatment allocation) included intraoperative opioid (sufentanil) dose, postoperative complications, and circulating and tumour-associated NETs (immunofluorescence assay, enzyme-linked immune assay, or both).ResultsA total of 563 participants (34.6% female; median age, 64 yr) completed 3 yr of clinical follow-up. Overall, 283 participants were randomised to lidocaine infusion, and 280 participants were randomised to placebo. Infusion of lidocaine did not alter overall (hazard ratio [HR]=0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81-1.17; P=0.79) or disease-free survival (HR=0.91; 95% CI, 0.71-1.17; P=0.44). Mean intraoperative sufentanil dose was reduced by lidocaine infusion (47.6 μg [4.6]) compared with placebo (68.4 μg [4.8]; P<0.001), but postoperative complications and length of hospital stay were similar between groups. Circulating NETs were lower after lidocaine infusion up to 3 days after surgery, but tumour-associated NETs were not altered by intraoperative treatment.ConclusionIn patients undergoing pancreatectomy for pancreatic cancer, intraoperative infusion of lidocaine did not improve overall or disease-free survival. Reduced formation of circulating NETs was absent in pancreatic tumour tissue.Clinical Trial RegistrationNCT03245346; updated in Chi-CTR-2000035469.Copyright © 2022 British Journal of Anaesthesia. All rights reserved.

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