J Anesth Perioper Med. 2017;4(1):1-6. https://doi.org/10.24015/ebcmed.japm.2017.0001

Effects of Sevoflurane or Propofol on Immune Function in Patients Undergoing Hepatectomy

Hao Gao1, Jin-Chao Song1*, Jin-Min Zhang1, Ying-Fu Jiao1, Zhi-Jie Lu1, Tian-Zhu Tao2, and Wei-Feng Yu1

From 1Department of Anesthesiology, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Air Force General Hospital of the Chinese PLA, Beijing, China.

*Contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to Dr. Wei-Feng Yu at ywf808@yeah.net.

EBCMED ID: ebcmed.japm.2017.0001 DOI: 10.24015/ebcmed.japm.2017.0001


Abstract

Background
In this study, the effects of sevoflurane or propofol on immune function in patients undergoing partial hepatectomy were investigated during general anesthesia and after surgery.

Methods
Seventy-two patients undergoing hepatectomy were randomized into sevoflurane group or propofol group. Sevoflurane or target-controlled infusion (TCI) of propofol was separately used to anesthesia induction and maintenance of two groups. Venous blood samples were taken before induction, 2 hours after anesthesia and 2 hours after surgery for measurement of the percentages of T lymphocyte (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+) and NK cells.

Results
Compared with that before anesthesia induction, percentage change in CD3+ and CD4+ T cells to baseline was -0.7% and 3.8% in sevoflurane group, 10.2% and 20.2% in propofol group 2 hours after anesthesia (P=0.002 for CD3+ T cells and P=0.029 for CD4+ T cells ). Percentage change in NK cells was 17.6% in sevoflurane and -12.2% in propofol group 2 hours after anesthesia respectively (P=0.03). There was no significant difference in percentage change 2 hours after surgery of T cells and NK cells to baseline between two groups.

Conclusions
Our study indicates that use of propofol during general anesthesia tend to increase the percentages of peripheral CD3+ and CD4+ cells, while sevoflurane increase the peripheral NK cells.

Article Type
Original Article

Declaration of Interests
All authors have no other potential conflicts of interest for this study to declare.

Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China: (NSFC, No.81371511 and No.31171013).

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