Journal of investigative surgery : the official journal of the Academy of Surgical Research
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Trauma is associated with immune paresis which may predispose to postoperative sepsis. We characterized the ex vivo cytokine responses to bacterial cell wall components in whole blood from 8 patients undergoing a major musculoskeletal trauma in the form of total hip replacement. Preoperatively, at the end of operation, and at days 1 and 6 postoperatively, patient blood was obtained, anticoagulated, and incubated at 37 degrees C in the presence of peptidoglycan (PepG) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). ⋯ The expression of IL-10 was significantly depressed at the end of surgery and at day 6. There were modest changes in PepG- and LPS-induced expression of interleukin 8 (IL-8) during the experiments. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that a musculoskeletal trauma is associated with reduced expression of TNF-alpha and IL-10 by whole blood leucocytes when exposed to endotoxin, but there is a difference between gram-positive endotoxin (PepG) and gram-negative endotoxin (LPS).
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Biography Historical Article
De Humani Corporis Fabrica surgical revolution.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), by the Belgian anatomy master Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), represents one of the most advanced surgical revolutions in history. The creation of an anatomy book that carefully and systematically introduced the structure of the human body in a way that was truthful to the findings of human dissection had never been accomplished before. ⋯ De Humani Corporis Fabrica offered to the surgeon's world new knowledge and a systematic approach to human anatomy. The novel concepts and perspectives introduced by Vesalius constituted a real surgical revolution worthy of study in the annals of surgery.