@article{798917a391b94360bcd56fd1d92cbcee,
title = "Effects of surgery, anesthesia and intraoperative blood loss on immunocompetence",
abstract = "The effects of surgery, anesthetic agents, and/or intraoperative blood loss on the immune system were studied by comparing the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative peripheral blood lymphocyte blastogenic responses to mitogens and antigens. All anesthetic agents were associated with some degree of immunosuppression, but some were differentially suppressive of either the T-cell or B-cell subpopulation of the peripheral blood lymphocytes. A greater depression of blastogenic responses was associated with ether than with halothane, and the B-cell responses seemed more selectively affected by ether. Cyclopropane anesthesia was more depressive than nitrous oxide, and both T- and B-cells were equally affected. The volume of blood lost during surgery was also correlated with the degree of immunosuppression. This anesthesia and surgery-associated immunosuppression persisted for at least 7 days.",
author = "Jubert, {Andre V.} and Lee, {Elisa T.} and Hersh, {Evan M.} and McBride, {Charles M.}",
note = "Funding Information: SEVERAL INVESTIGATORS HAVE SHOWN that surgery and/or anesthesia caused depression of the immune response ] 1, 13, 171. It has been hypothesized that this was caused by either the anesthetic agents themselves, the stress of the operative procedure with reactive adrenocortical secretion, or the release of other humoral factors by t.he liver [4, 171. The blastogenic responses of peripheral blood lymphocytes to phytohemagglutinin and other mitogenic and antigenic agents, which is considered one of the basic tools of immunocompetenee evaluation, has been used to study this phenomenon. Riddle and Berenbaum [ 121 observed postoperative depression of the lymphocyte response to phytohemagglutinin and concluded that the most likely reason for this depression was operative trauma. This type of observation has not been adequately followed up or extended. In the current study, by comparing the blasto-genie responses of peripheral blood lympho- Departments of Biomathematics, Developmental Therapeutics, and Surgery, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, Houston, Texas 77025. Supported by: Contract PH 43 68 949, CoI-laborative Research Program, Transplantation Immunology Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Instit.utes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20014. *Address for reprints: Evan M. Hersh, M.D., Department of Developmental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Houston, Texas 77025. Submitted for publication May 11, 1973.",
year = "1973",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1016/0022-4804(73)90110-8",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "15",
pages = "399--403",
journal = "Journal of Surgical Research",
issn = "0022-4804",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "6",
}