Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 1999
Cerebrospinal fluid cytokine levels after surgery with spinal or general anesthesia.
Studies show that pain may cause neuroinflammatory changes in the spinal cord. These inflammatory changes could be caused by circulating factors such as plasma cytokines or could be a primary neuroimmune response of the central nervous system following peripheral nerve injury. To identify the possible effects of peripheral trauma and pain on the cytokine environment of the spinal cord, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) concentrations in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured before and after hip replacement surgery. ⋯ Major orthopedic surgery leads to elevated CSF levels of the proinflammatory cytokine, IL-6. The origin of increased CSF IL-6 may be central because there was no significant correlation with plasma levels.