Influence of operation under epidural anesthesia on peripheral t lymphocyte subsets.

This paper reports the variation of peripheral T lymphocyte subsets in patients before and after operation under epidural anesthesia using OKT monoclonal antibodies (McAb). The results show that TH and TS after anesthesia and during surgery were lower than before anesthesia and in normal controls (P less than 0.05). The ratio of TH/TS after anesthesia and during operation were lower than before anesthesia (P less than 0.05), but there was no significant difference with normal controls (P greater than 0.05). Therefore, we consider that the decrease in TH cells was one of the reasons for decrease in patient immune function during anesthesia and surgery. Five to seven days after surgery, patient TH cell levels tended to normalize. This showed that this abnormality was transient and reversible. The results also indicated that emphasising prevention of infection in post-operational case, should be done during the first 5-7 days after surgery.