Why is this important?

Post-operative fatigue (POF) is common and has significant effects on post-operative recovery and quality of life.

Past studies have linked post-operative fatigue to the pro-inflammatory effects of surgery and anesthesia. Other studies have suggested anti-inflammatory benefits of steroids, tight glucose control and avoiding deep anesthesia.

What did they do?

Abdelmalak and team randomized 381 patients using a 3-factorial design for the three interventions. 306 patients were analysed for POF outcome.

Surgical interventions covered a wide range of major non-cardiac procedures, with mean surgical length just under 5 hours and 75% of patients being ASA 3 or 4.

And they found?

No difference for any of the interventions for either fatigue or quality of life.

Hang on...

While it may be that post-operative inflammation is not the causative factor for POF, more likely the study interventions had insufficient impact on inflammation to change fatigue outcomes.

For minor and moderate surgery of shorter duration in lower-acuity patients (ASA 1 & 2) who have experienced significant POF previously, these simple interventions may still be beneficial.

summary

• Basem B Abdelmalak, Jing You, Andrea Kurz, Michael Kot, Thomas Bralliar, Feza H Remzi, and Daniel I Sessler.
• Department of General Anesthesiology, Anesthesiology Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States of America; Department of Outcomes Research, Anesthesiology Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States of America. Electronic address: abdelmb@ccf.org.
• J Clin Anesth. 2019 Aug 1; 55: 83-91.

Study ObjectivesThe postoperative period is associated with an inflammatory response that may contribute to a number of complications including postoperative fatigue (POF) that impair patients' quality of life (QoL). We studied the impact of three potentially anti-inflammatory interventions (steroid administration, tight intraoperative glucose control, and light anesthesia) on POF and QoL in patients having major noncardiac surgery.DesignA randomized Trial.SettingOperating room and postoperative recovery area/ICU/hospital floors.PatientsPatients undergoing major noncardiac surgery.InterventionsPatients were randomized to perioperative IV dexamethasone (a total of 14 mg tapered over 3 days) versus placebo, intensive versus conventional glucose control (target 80-110 vs. 180-200 mg·dL-1), and light versus deep anesthesia (Bispectral Index target of 55 vs. 35) in a 3-way factorial design.MeasurementsIn this planned sub-analysis, QoL was measured using SF-12 preoperatively and on postoperative day (POD) 30. POF was measured using Christensen VAS, pre-operatively, POD 1, and POD 3. We assessed the effect of each intervention on POF and on the physical and mental components of SF-12 summary scores with repeated-measures linear regression models.Main Results326 patients with complete data were included in the SF-12 analysis and 306 were included in the QoL analysis. No difference was found between any of the intervention groups on fatigue or mean 30-day physical and mental components of SF-12 scores, after adjusting for preoperative score and imbalanced baseline variables (all P-value >0.07 for POF and >0.40 for QoL).ConclusionsSteroid administration, tight intraoperative glucose control, and light anesthesia do not improve quality of life or postoperative fatigue after major surgery.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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