• Nora Maria Moselli, Elisa Baricocchi, Dario Ribero, Antonio Sottile, Luisa Suita, and Felicino Debernardi.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Therapy, IRCC-Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, Candiolo, Italy.
• Ann. Surg. Oncol. 2011 Oct 1; 18 (10): 2722-31.

BackgroundThe intraoperative epidural analgesia (EA) has the potential to reduce stress response to surgical trauma which induces a transient immunoactivation that has a negative impact on the outcome. This study investigates the effect of intraoperative EA versus intravenous analgesia (IA) on the immune function.MethodsA total of 35 consecutive patients candidated to undergo major surgery for colon cancer were randomly assigned to intraoperative EA (n = 18) or IA (n = 17). Blood samples for TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, and GM-CSF were obtained before surgery (T(pre)), 3 h (T(3h)), and 24 h (T(24h)) after skin incision. Data on postoperative complications were prospectively collected and analyzed.ResultsIn the EA group, IL-4 increased from T(pre) to T(3h) and from T(3h) to T(24h), IL-10 increased from T(pre) to T(3h) and persisted unmodified thereafter. At all time-points, IL-4 and IL-10 serum levels were significantly higher than those in the IA group. Conversely, in the IA group, IL-4 and IL-10 serum levels did not change while all other cytokines levels were significantly higher compared with the EA group. In particular, IL-6 progressively reached a 7-fold increase of its basal value at T(24h). Complications were significantly more common in IA patients (13 of 17) compared with EA patients (7 of 18) (P = .024).ConclusionsOur results indicate that in cancer patients undergoing major elective colon surgery, the EA attenuates the surgery-induced proinflammatory response and the typical postoperative transient immunosuppression and seems associated with a reduced rate of postoperative complications compared with IA.

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