Introduction: It has been reported that as compared with total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA), inhalation anesthesia is increasing the postoperative level of proinflammatory interleukins.
The aim of the study is to investigate if there is an in-vivo relationship between proinflammatory cytokines, Interleukin-32 (IL-32) and Tumour necrosis factor – α (TNF- α), in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomies with two different anesthetic techniques, TIVA or inhalation anesthesia.
Material and Methods: Twenty two consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomies were prospectively randomized into two groups: Group 1: TIVA with target-controlled infusion (TIVA-TCI) (n=11) and Group 2: isoflurane anesthesia (ISO) (n=11). IL-32 and TNF-α were determined before the induction of anesthesia (T1), before incision (T2) and at 2h (T3) and 24h (T4) postoperatively. Our primary outcome was to compare plasma levels of IL-32 and TNF- α concentrations (expressed as area-under-the-curve) over 24 hours between study groups. Our secondary outcome was to establish whether there is a correlation between plasma levels of IL-32 and of TNF-α at each time point between the two groups.
Results: Area-under-the-curve (AUC) of IL-32 plasma concentration was 7.53 in Group 1 (TIVA) versus 3.80 in Group 2 (ISO), p= 1. For TNF-α, AUC of plasma concentration was 733.9 in Group 1 (TIVA) and 668.7 in Group 2 (ISO), p= 0.066. There were no significant differences in plasma concentrations of both IL-32 and TNF- α between the groups.
Conclusions: IL-32 expression in response to minor surgery is very low. There were no significant difference between plasma levels ofTNF- α and IL-32 after TIVA versus inhalation anesthesia during the first 24 hours postoperatively. Further studies are needed on larger groups to investigate whether there can be a correlation between these interleukins after 2 different anesthetic techniques and the impact of this correlation on postoperative outcome.