[The effect of surgical trauma on the metabolism of essential fatty acids in patients with cancer of the esophagus and stomach].

The dynamics of levels of essential fatty (linolic and arachidonic) acids in blood plasma and erythrocytes as well as that of free fatty acids fraction versus duration of surgery was assessed by gas chromatography in 49 patients with cancer of the esophagus and gastric cardia. Surgical procedures lasting longer than 5 hours are followed by overmobilization of essential fatty acids from body lipids their endogenous store being depleted. As a result, a double increase in the level of free arachidonic acid, an immediate prostaglandin precursor, develops to satisfy the body's augmented requirements in essential fatty acids due to application of aggressive surgical procedures.